We had a fantastic time when our daughter and the grandchildren came to stay last week. We'd managed to squeeze onto the pontoon at Sainte Valerie sur Somme despite the "lurkers" who had already been there for more than a week - the limit is supposed to be 3 days.
We took the steam train to the town of Le Crotoy across the bay
It's a pretty seaside town with rows of old fashioned beach huts
Although the sand looked white it was only on the surface. Below the top inch it was very black and unsuitable for making sand castles, so we made do with a paddle
We stayed 4 days at Sainte Valerie as on the evening of the fourth day the local waterways manager came round and issued us with an overstay warning letter and told us we HAD to leave. He also evicted a French cruiser who had been there for 10 days but didn't do anything about the Dutch barge that had been there for a fortnight. The Frenchman was very upset and was going to complain to his local MP!
So next day we cruised back to Abbeville giving the children chance to drive the boat and when we arrived the moorings were empty. Roger and our daughter cycled back 15km to collect her car. She hadn't been on a bike for 20 odd years and was dreading it, but she hadn't realised that our new bikes were electric and managed it easily.
Abbeville actually turned out to be a better base for the rest of their week. One day we drove out to the Chateau de Rambures which was built in the middle ages and is one of the first castles in Europe to be constructed almost entirely in bricks.
While Roger and I really enjoyed the guided tour inside the chateau the children would have been bored so they stayed outside playing with the medieval games that were on display. They tried their hand at archery, thankfully with rubber ends on the arrows 😀 and then lateer tried to play giant chess with Grandad
The rose gardens at the chateau were fabulous and the kids collected a bagful of fallen petals to make rose perfume back at the boat. It doesn't take much to keep little ones occupied 😀
While they were with us it was a "blood moon"
All too soon the week was over and they had to go home 😭 The boat is very quiet without them, thank heavens for video chat.
Chico celebrated his 13th birthday in his usual way - being pampered and sleeping in the shade. He's been suffering a bit with the heat and has been off his food but for an old dog he's still in pretty good shape.
We're now starting our journey back towards Roanne and are keeping a close watch on water levels as there hasn't been any significant rain here for weeks. There are also a couple of locks out of order on our route which we're hoping will be fixed by the time we get to them.
That's all for now, see you again soon X
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