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JupiJaunt to Baie de Somme
Saturday 16th to Saturday 23rd June 2012 Review |
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So the rain stayed away for the duration, absolutely no need for Holts Dampstart!
The group consisted of 15 people plus several guests at different venues.
Everyone seems to have enjoyed the scenery, good food, the wines, the visits and the varied activities.
Laughter was the order of the day !
NB Grateful thanks to Gilbert Lefin for all im@geur images displayed here
Saturday 16th June, the Mumbys and the Nankivells drove their Jupiters to le Touquet
Sunday morning of the 17th,
for the very well-attended monthly classic car gathering at Le Touquet Palais des Congres.
The Jupiters were much admired and caused quite a stir!
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 The four Jupiters (L to R) are of the Lockyers, the Nankivells, the Mumbys and the Kennedys |
Below: Pat Lockyer (centre) shares a joke with the Kennedys.
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We then drove the 60 miles to our town-centre hotel in Arras
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Below left: Ken Graham, John Blaze, Edmund Nankivell, Ghislaine Nankivell. Below right: John Blaze, Claude Bernard, Paula Jacobs, Ken Graham
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Below left: Three of our Jupiters at our Arras hotel. Below right: Arras Town Hall with spire which some of us climbed to the top...great view!
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Below: Monday 18th at the Mine Museum at Lewarde
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The Hanging Room. Miners working clothes hung to dry after work. |
Lunch at the mine's restaurant 'Le Briquet' L to R: Claude Bernard, Jennifer Kennedy, Gilbert Lefin, David Kennedy, Edmund Nankivell, Paula Jacobs and Ken Graham |
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Jupiters at the mine museum  |
Beautiful poppy field opposite the mine car park  |
Night has fallen in Arras. Starlit sky promised sunshine for the morrow
Tuesday 19th - Relaxing lunch stop on the way to Baie de Somme
The Gardens of Valloires provided us with scrumptious food artistically presented, eaten out-doors!
All vegetables and herbs are grown on site.
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Part of the Abbey gardens |
After lunch and a stroll around the beautiful gardens, it was time to take a beautiful scenic drive to St Valery-sur-Somme |
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Mid afternoon on Tuesday: we arrive at our St Valery sur Somme hotel for two nights
View over St Valery sur Somme from our hotel Les Corderies, clear skies day and evening.
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Claude Bernard and Gilbert Lefin had to leave us at Les Corderies Paula Jacobs and others of our group at breakfast
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Our group enjoying the sunshine at Hotel Les Corderies, St Valery sur Somme
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On Wednesday 20th June, we took the steam train around the Baie de Somme and back
From our hotel to the starting point was a short very scenic stroll
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The train arrives, and the steam engine is turned on the turntable. We climb aboard. The views of the bay are wonderful
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On the return the train stopped at Noyelles sur Mer for the engine to take on water and change ends |
Steam locomotive changing ends whilst we all watched.
We had a really good evening meal in a good restaurant in the town.
On the morning of Thursday 21st we relocated 2 miles to the out-of-town Hotel du Cap Hornu, close to the bay.
We then went cycling! Below: we cycled to Cap Hourdel and treated ourselves to an excellent meal,
after which some of us pushed further on amongst the sand dunes
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and David Kennedy
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The original chapel is where St Valery was buried in 622. The present chapel is an 1878 rebuild.
In stormy weather, sailors wives would gather there to watch out for their menfolk
 Pat Lockyer cheekily parked his Jupiter next to his room in the Hotel Cap Hornu |
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On Friday 22nd we relocated to an hotel in Hardelot-Plage for our farewell evening. But the journey offered choices: some of us went directly, about 45-50miles north, others went via Azincourt (40 miles from Cap Hornu) where there was an excellent visitor centre covering the battle of 1415, its causes and aftermath. The politics are complex, for although defeat hit France hard and started a new period in the 100-years war, firstly the victor the English king Henry V married the French king's daughter and, second, his son the future Henry VI was made heir to the French throne although he never took this up.
Photo below shows the Azincourt Visitor Centre with the Nankivell Jupiter in the sunshine
For some, we then pressed on a further 19 miles to the
Randorail at Nielles-les-Blequin.
This was on a disused rail line, and
we used little pedalled vehicles that each took
two pedallers and two passengers.
Highly scenic and great fun!
Here are pictures of some locomotives that used to pull trains on this stretch of railway
On the Randorail. Left: approaching the turntable Right: Peter Welch, Ghislaine & Edmund Nankivell
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It was then a mere 24 miles to our final hotel.
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Left: Friday at the Hotel du Parc, Hardelot-Plage. Right: The Saturday departure. The Kennedys are off to the Suisse Normande before returning home.
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On Saturday 23rd Full circle, here we are again at the Shuttle terminal before the off.
Sun still shining as so often on our Jupi-Jaunt!
All over until the next one...
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Images
of St
Valery-sur-Somme
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