Réservoir de la Mouche

This morning we didn’t bother hurrying to get up, we were all tired from a long day yesterday and our first stop didn’t open until 10am, so after a hearty breakfast of french sausage and rolls we left moulin fanchon, the windmill and headed into Albert to visit the 1916 Somme museum. Finding somewhere to park was a nightmare and I was just about to give up when we found a few spaces outside someone’s house. We checked with the house owner that it was ok to leave Wanda there and off we went. The sights and stories in the museum were pretty harrowing to say the least but to see what the soldiers had to deal with gave us all an appreciation for life and how lucky we are thanks to the sacrifices of others. They even had the medical equipment there and photos of how they reconstructed peoples bodies and faces after they had been blown up or hit by shrapnel, it was disgusting but fascinating at the same time. Then we saw the trench art, hundreds of old shells that had been painstakingly carved and moulded by soldiers in the trenches.
When we left the museum we wandered the grounds for a while before visiting the local church, which in true french fashion was utterly amazing and beautiful. Then it was back to Wanda to head into the Alps.
By the time it was evening we still had 160 miles to travel and it would be getting dark within a couple of hours so we had to start operation tortoise.
We found a spot in some woods, right next to a lake about 10 miles off the motorway, it was a bit of a challenge getting there through the tight little villages but Wanda did it and this is home for the night.
Tomorrow we head into the Alps.Read more