http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Picardie/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , France , Picardie en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:16:30 BST Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:16:30 BST Tuesday 1st October 2008The plan today was to move from Saint Quentin to Compiegne.The journey was a little longer than we have been completing we filled up with petrol first thing only our second time since arriving.Drove through all the minor roads which we prefer to do you get to see the sights that way rather than just hammering along the main roads.Stopped at a French Military Cemetery http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/Laon/blog-329787.html Tuesday 30 September 2008A rainy day in France sadly.Anyway the plan was to visit Amiens Town then Peronne then American Memorial at Bony and then on to Saint Quentin.Found our way into Ameins and a town centre underground car park we are definetly getting better at the driving and finding our way around. We only had one car beep at us today.We had a quick coffee at the first place we came t http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/Laon/blog-329402.html Monday 29th September 2008Wow what a day.Woke up and got moving quite early for us.Left Bethune with a heading of Amiens with a planned stop at Thiepval. We had booked our next night in a Premiere Classe in Amiens so this was our destination for the day.Popped into a supermarket for bits and pieces.Visited The Notre Dame De Lorette French cemetery truly massive containing 40051. I may ha http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/Amiens/blog-329065.html The idea of spending four days on the Somme was so that I could follow in the the footsteps of Frederick Stobo Phillips and try to get a 'feel' for the area and possibly gain some sort of understanding of what it might have been like for the diggers 90 years ago. A mighty ask I know but I did what I could and Kev got into the swing of things he was extremely helpful driving me here there and http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/blog-292485.html Heathrow's Terminal Five is awesome huge and even has comfy looking loungebeds in the waiting area.With the short hop from London to Paris on British Airways it wasn't long before we were back in a hire car once more. Having returned our Renault Megane at Heathrow driving on the left we picked up a Toyoto Yaris at Charles de Gaulle driving on the right. Luckily it was pretty easy to d http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/blog-290686.html BonjourWe are on our way.We picked up the cqr at the airport and had a 2 hour drive to Amiens Although we had had a short tutorial on GPS it took a while to work out how to drive it We arrived at BlangyTronville for our BB to be met by the lovely Patricia She runs the bb with her husband Alain who teaches Anglais at the UniversitThey are lovely peopleWe spent the afternoon touring the ba http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/Amiens/blog-259623.html Today we picked the car up in Paris and headed for Amiens in the country north of Paris.It was a shakey start with Ev first losing his credit card at the train station then once we picked the car up in the first 10 metres Ev scratched the rims of the car on a very high curb.We finally made it onto the highway and were off. About an hour and a half later we arrived in Amiens. It is a beautiful lit http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/Amiens/blog-185786.html I decided that of all the historic places I wanted to see in France and in my life in general Verdun was very high if not top on the list. In 1916 the area near Verdun a small town in Picardie became the seat of one of the largest battles in the history of the world.As the lines stablilized and the infamous trenches became established the German Chief of Staff one Erich Von Falkenhayn deci http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Picardie/blog-85189.html