Three men in a boat

Three men and a boat.Martin, Richard and Gareth.

 

 There is a certain trait among Englishmen that compels them to take on excentric expeditions. I have to confess that I once had similar leanings. So when a very British looking rowing gig tied up astern of us one hot summer evening in Amiens, I was compelled to learn their story.   

The much traveled 'Wossname' with 

'Montmorency' resting on deck. (Read the book)

Wassname carries the souvenirs of many noble voyages

These three retired gentlemen are the nucleus of a crew which has rowed Wossname up or preferably down rivers, voyaged out to sea and traversed many canals in Britain and Europe. They were in the flotilla that escorted Gloriana, the royal barge, down the thames at the 2012 Queen's Jubilee pageant, and have competed in the 2014 Great River race. Some of their epic rows have raised funds for charities of their choosing. Spoiler here, Wassname does the "boring bits" being towed on a trailer.

Farewell Amiens and the Somme

Amiens Cathedral rightly dominates the skyline

After sunset, the Cathedral light show is stunning.

In the porticos, lighting colours the stone carved saints,

 as they would have originally been painted 

Antiope finds a Somme mooring

This peaceful river once defined the front line.

we are just a few Kms out of Amiens

These lift bridges are managed by the roving lockeepers

Weed munchers, doing a great job keeping this waterway clear

Meanwhile, after a restful few weeks on the Somme, we will begin our own passage down to Paris.

It is hard to imagine while cruising quietly through this postcard landscape the horrors seen here, and the futile loss of thousands of lives during two world wars. Now on a bankside mooring the only sound is the rustling of leaves. 

Lovingly restored narrow gauge locos at Cappy

We take the tourist train behind a diesel loco. 

( Steam at the Weekends ) 

At Cappy, a narrow guage railway museum houses trains that once hauled munitions on both sides of the front line. Remnants of those lines through the woods still survive,  these days they carry tourists like us.

 

Another train on another day.

The Armistice Carriage. Another reminder! 

We had returned to Compiegne, this time with family guests aboard, and took time out to visit the site of the armistice signing in a railway carriage on November 11th 1918.      'The War To End All Wars'. 

This wagon, sadly, is not the original. Adolf Hitler demanded that the French surrender 21 years later in 1939, was signed in the same carriage, then had it moved it to Berlin. In 1945 as the Allies closed in on Berlin it was burned, reputedly by the SS.

 River levels permitting we continue South on the Oise river to join the Seine, Paris and eventually the Yonne.