Travelling to the Somme- Phil & Jill

One of the key objectives of our trip to France this year was to travel to the Somme and visit the area near St Quentin where Phil's great Uncle, Arthur Harold Ellens fought and died. To do this we decided before we left to join an organised tour to hear a full commentary and more easily go to important sites to do with the Australian service in World War I. Our travel agent came up with Back Road tours which had a suitable 5 day tour. It starts in Lille, so we had to get from Rouen to Lille. At home in Australia the only route we could gleen was to return from Rouen to Paris, change trains at the confusing station of Gare du Nord and take another train to Lille. We were not looking forward to it.

However a chance comment overheard by Phil at the bus station in Caen changed all that. A couple of weeks ago as I was buying our bus tickets to Bayeux, Phil heard a guy ask the bus ticket seller, was there a bus to Ghent. When he got a positive answer it started Phil thinking...I wonder if there was a bus from Rouen to Lille??? After checking I found out it was possible. When in Rouen we went to the Tourist Information to ask where the bus station was in Rouen. We found out that there is none. All tickets are sold on-line for the long distance buses. There was only one Flixibus going to Brussels each day and it stopped at Lille. So for 24 euros we bought the tickets via the Tourist Information. They charge 2 euros for the booking service - the best money you can spend for the certainty of the arrangement.

So this morning we left our little chic appartment which we had grown very attached to. Rania came with her husband to collect the key and some money. She was such a friendly French girl...she says 'you like flat? ...bissous, bissous...we always do kisses in France (this time when you read this you have to use the same French accent, a shrug, but sort of screw up your face and now you are in the moment!)

We walked to the end of the street to the promenade along the quays of the Seine, passed a large Opera House which I noticed was showing Barber of Seville, among others; walking til we came to the third bridge - Corneille bridge and crossed over to the Left bank of the river. Then a little way up the street we found many other travellers with suitcases so we thought we had reached the 'getting on' point at Champlain Avenue. However the number signage for 731 (the number of the bus we required) was missing. I asked a guy standing there if this was the right spot and he said 'voila'. Great we had found it easily and the walk only took 25 minutes. We were well pleased with ourselves as it was all a bit dodgy getting on at some isolated bus shelter. Right on time our Flixibus arrived. We had beaten going to Paris - yay!! The driver got out and controlled the putting of bags in the underneath compartment, scanned every ticket and assigned seats. It was modern, very comfortable and air conditioned - very welcome on a day expected to be 30 degrees. It was a wonderful journey passing rolling countryside and one half hour stop at Amiens.

Phil thought our driver would have made a good CSM (Company Sergeant Major) . Jovial enough he had complete control on the bus. After our break at Amiens which was lunch time he gets back on the bus, studiously looks at the passengers as he says....I smell frites ( in French of course ...meaning I smell chips). He identifies the culprits and shaking his finger he says....non,non,non ...no eating chips or hamburgers in my bus and gave the 2 young people 5 minutes to get off the bus and finish their food. He then gave the rest of us a rolling commentary of how unbearable such a smell was in the bus. No harm done we took off again having gained more people who got on in Amiens.

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The bus became quite noisy but our CSM driver quickly asked those passengers in the back to talk slowly - obviously that means if French people talk slowly it will be quieter!! I guess that decreases their excitement. We smiled to ourselves, we really got a chuckle out of that.

The amount of trucks and traffic on the 5 way (both sides of the road) was enormous. It was much easier riding the bus than coping with traffic like that. At Lille we arrived at the huge TGV train station called Lille-Europe.heavily gustded by armed soldiers wearing flak jackets and carrying rifles

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With the aid of Phil's mud map it took a 20 minute walk to the L'Hermitage Gantois, the 5 star hotel chosen by the tour company. We were encouraged by our travel agent in Melbourne to take a pre-tour night. This hotel has an interesting history from being hospice founded in 1462 by Jean de la Cambe and until 1995 the elderly and sick were treated. In September 2003 the L'Hospice Gantois was turned into a 5 star hotel - L'Hermitage Gantois and as their publication says it is premier hotel established in an historical monument from the 15th century with 500 years of history. It still has a chapel, a library, a room where the sick were treated. It seemed pretty swank when we walked passed the blue leather sofas of the bar.....but all that has to wait til tomorrow because I made the most of here....

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Very smooth day. We are feeling very pleased with ourselves.