We’re on vacation, hooray! It’s been a stressful, busy couple of months in the Regensblog household, so we needed a little getaway. We wanted somewhere that we could get to with our car and that wouldn’t require more than one week’s of travel time. We settled on northern France, the regions of Somme and Picardie, right on the Belgian border.
Sounds idyllic, right? Well, so far so good. The trip was uneventful, the accommodations are even lovelier than the pictures made them seem and the surroundings are quite charming. Here’s the problem:
We’re not sure what to do here.
I couldn’t find crap for suggestions in my usual resources, Frommer’s and Lonely Planet. We’re close enough to go to Normandy and look at the D-Day sites for a day trip, and we’ll definitely pop in to Amiens and maybe even Reims for some architecture gawking, but if there is good stuff closer to where we are, I’d like to know about it. So here I am, asking the blogosphere: do you have experience in Picardie? Any can’t-miss activities? We are open to suggestion!
If you’re a Trekkie, you could meet up with Jean-Luc Picardie.
One of the most interesting trips we have taken was through the WWI Somme memorials, cemeteries, and battlefields. Don’t miss the Newfoundland Memorial with its preserved trenches. Fascinating.
Thanks, Pam! We already did some WWII stuff in Bayeux and, of course, the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. WWI sites are a little less familiar to us – is it the memorial in Thiepval?
Oh wow, thanks Pam! Great tip! We spent the morning at Beaumont-Hamel at that memorial. More on that to come.
Not sure how far you want to travel from your current location, but Waterloo is worth the visit, and next year is the 200th anniversary.
Thanks, Doug! It’s probably too far for this trip, unless we decide to stop there on our way back to Germany. I’ll keep this in mind for the future, though, as I’m always looking for a reason to go to Belgium.
Are you still there? The chinese cemetery in Nolette was pretty impressive. If you’re into this kind of cultural visit.
Hi Le champignon,
We are back in Germany now, but I have a feeling we’ll head back to the area sometime. I’ll put that in my back pocket for next time!
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