We made a decision this morning after Lille to avoid staying in cities. We were forced to do this for the rail journeys but there was no reason with the car not to stay out in the countryside, so we used the booking.com map, zoomed into some green and found the Chateau de la Râpée and booked it. We had breakfast in a beautiful square in Arras. A croissant, a pain au raisin and two coffees for about seven euros. Got talking to a chap who had just done a festival...

We dropped Paul off at Lille station as he was heading back to London that day. We stayed at the nearby sweethôtel which we found down a back alley across from a sex shop. Not a great start. An access code was punched into a keypad outside and again at the door of the apartment. Clever but cold and slightly worrying if you did this late at night due to the seedy location. Room was modern but dark and small. However shower was strong and Internet was blistering s...

Up early to ensure we were poignantly placed for the 95th anniversary of the Somme battle. Richard's grandfather, Bertram Corthorn DCM, was in the 12th Battalion York and Lancashire regiment (Sheffield City Battallion). Their position on 1st July 1916 was in one of four copses named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 2000 soldiers from the battalion were positioned in trenches at the edge of the copses waiting for the whistle to charge. In less than an hour nearly 60...

Writing this in Albert, Somme with minimal wifi so apologies if brief. Uneventful journey down, forgetting the 2 hour power cut in channel tunnel. Thankfully not our train but a previous one. Arrived on France to beautiful sunshine. TomTom took us close to Belgium and our lunch had Flemish choices though we went for fromage and jambon baguette and an albeit Belgian beer. Area dotted with mostly British cemeteries. About 2000 in all. 750,000 British and Commonwea...