Baie de Somme

The final stop at a French camp site on our journey home was at a very friendly, very French site on the outskirts of Saint Valery-sur-Somme. Why very French? Well we were now in low season and the only travellers we have come across in the low season were Dutch, German and English, with maybe a few Danes thrown in for good measure. This site was 98% French and it was full! Yet another new experience! It was as if we had been thrown back into the middle of July, the weather was just as good too.

This was another new area of France for us and it has been added to the list of places we will definitely come back to.

Saint Valery is on the edge of the Baie de Somme, an absolutely enormous bay which is now a nature reserve as it attracts hundreds of species of migrating birds as well as having its own colony of seals. We were very fortunate that the weather was calm and sunny while we were there as we’re sure it’s not quite so attractive when there’s a Force 9 gale blowing in from the Atlantic! The colours and the scenery changed depending on the tide and the time of day. It was the sort of vista that you could never get tired of viewing. At high tide many boats and guided canoes were out to see all the wild life and just have a good time. At low tide you could take a guided walking tour in borrowed wellies to see the wildlife and plants which are very special and the harvesting of them adds to the economy of this area. (One of our favourites is samphire - delicious served with fish.))

Benji enjoyed the open spaces but the beach, being on an estuary, was a bit muddy so much poodle cleaning was required!

The town of Saint Valery still has most of the old city wall intact and a fascinating old church with a very impressive set of gargoyles!

We also spent some time exploring the resorts on either side of the bay

We saw these horses racing on a beach on the Eastern side of the bay near Le Crotoy.

These pictures are from Cayeaux-sur-mer, a resort to the West, with its immaculate rows of beach huts fronting an enormous pebble beach.

The most surprising place we visited a bit further West. At Le Treport you have wide expanses of beach with flat land behind on one side but on the other side you have cliffs that rival Dover! These two photos were taken from the same place. Le Treport also has beautiful old seaside architecture and is brimming with restaurants. We only drove around here as we had already eaten and it was very busy in a friendly holiday sort of way, but it’s somewhere we will make a point of returning to in the future.