This morning I woke up early, so I went for a walk around Amiens. The previous night I was told that a very large antiques market was on this weekend. Many people from all over Europe was expected to visit. So it was nice to walk around to see all the people setting up their antique stalls. There was so much to see, and it was all for sale. I tried to take some photos where you can see down all four directions. I happened to choose the wrong time, because a truck was about to reverse into the space where I was taking the photos. The man joked about me being the police, and another man was telling me to get out of the way. I didn't manage to take these photos.

As the city was closed down for the antique market, I had a chance to see more of the city without traffic. I walked down beyond the area reserved for the market, I found the Église Saint-Rémi and past the old Caisse d'Epargne on Rue de la République. The antique market took up a substantial part of the city. I walked as far as they had set up, down to the Cultural centre. When I got back to the hotel, we went down for breakfast. This was the first breakfast we had in France. Most days on the trip we had the standard French breakfast of tea/coffee, baguette, confiture (jam) and croissants, but this was definitely the most substantial breakfast we encountered in France, They had a nice selection of pates, confit meat and sweetish pastries. The meats spread on baguette was very nice. The other guests at breakfast were all French. I got a little annoyed, since no one spoke to us. The husband of the lady we met the previous afternoon spoke to the others but ignored us. Since I got annoyed, I wanted to prove myself. So I found an excuse to ask the other guests a question in French. I saw some white plates, so I acted as though I didn't know where they were. "Excusez-moi, où se trouve les assiettes blanches?" Over there they said. Youpee! I did it.

I planned to attend Mass in the main body of the impressive Cathedral de Notre Dame d'Amiens. This cathedral is the most voluminous cathedral in the world. I had hoped to hear them play the church organ in the main part of the cathedral, but it was celebrated in a side chapel. Lucie and Cyril joined us. Dad spoke to the priest, so in the Mass he mentioned us in English. After we spent more time looking at the interior of the cathedral, we went back to Bertangles for lunch. I didn't take any photos of the inside of the cathedral, but since I'll be back there one day, I can take them next time. That afternoon we went for our first historical adventure. My Dad has a friend whose great uncle also died during the First World War. We had his name, and a name of the area where the cemetery should be. So we went searching. Our first stop was in the town Merricourt-l'Abbé. The first cemetery we came across in the town was the Communal cemetery. located to the east of the town, however this was the wrong one. There are two cemeteries in town, the first and its extension site further south, but again, we didn't find out man in the second site. Cyril asked a local man for the location of other nearby war cemeteries. He gave us an instruction how to get to a cemetery, but it just got us lost. We found the location of the grave at Heilly Station, very close to the town Heilly, just opposite the railway line. Heilly is located a little further down the Ancre, in the direction of Amiens. Heilly station is a much larger CWGC cemetery, containing 2973 graves. It was here where we found the name of W. Herbert in the book. The search for him began. Lucie was the first to discover the location of the grave, quite likely the first person to visit him specifically. Lucie left a memorial cross prepared by an Australian school student. Unfortunately it wasn't there for very long after she had left it.

Cyril then took us to see the large bomb crater at La Boiselle (Lochnagar Crater). This was the site where in the first two minutes on the first day of the Somme (1 July 1916), the British army set off 19 mines behind German lines, the charge at la Boiselle being the largest, caused by 27 tons of explosive. During the 1970s, a Scottish man named Richard Dunning bought the land for preservation of the site in order to preserve the crater a historical site. A British tour was there when we visited.

After the crater, we visited the battlefield site at Beaumont-Hamel. This is the site where the troops from Newfoundland engaged their combatants. This is the only site in Picardy where the trenches are preserved in their original condition following the war. I tried to get a sense of what the battlefield would have been like at the time. In my photos I attempted to show how deep the trenches were, and imagine myself there at the time. The first Somme battle killed more than 90% of the men who came to fight for Newfoundland. Due to the heavy casualties to Newfoundland, this was part of the reason why Newfoundland eventually became part of Canada. When we arrived a few Canadians were leaving. He asked us if we wanted the self-guided tour brochure. There is a large caribou monument at the top of the hill where you can see the whole field of trenches. It dedicated to the 820 missing men from Newfoundland over the course of the war. Further on you come across the danger tree, which marks the location of the tree that was present at the time. This location marks where many an advance had been stopped. We didn't proceed further than this toward the Y ravine, since it was gate closing time.

After dinner at Bertangles, we were dropped off at our new lodgings at Naours, called Au Logis d'Oie. It was a converted barn and house. A very rustic type place. The owners, Marie-Josie and Gerard. Josie was an old woman who spoke English, rather slowly and carefully. Venez she said to us as she explained the room to me. As I had written to both owners in French, they spoke French to me, which I was appreciative of. Gerard didn't speak English at all, so it was difficult to talk to him because he barely understood what I said to him. It happened a number of times, and I still wonder what the reasons for it was. Mostly pronunciation and the accent he wasn't at all used to.

Here a note on my experience with French. I had thought I knew just enough to get by, not have too much trouble understanding and being understood. I was totally wrong. I found the biggest threat to me communicating in French is being calm and not stressed. This was the major problem I had. I could not think of what to say, I couldn't remember what I had learnt, and it also gave me so many problems being understood because I missed the proper pronunciation that I had practised hard on achieving. Number one problem to solve is how do I stay calm and relaxed in such situations. Then maybe I can remember what I had learnt much easier.