Even with an 2CV, Northern France is a place where you will arrive in a relaxed and relaxed day with a calm day of driving.
But that "arriving in northern France" is something that does not fit in with most people. Northern France, that is the part of the highway where you can head south as quickly as possible. And there in the South of France you rent a house that costs you three thousand euros for fourteen days in an area where there are so many tourists that a Frenchman seems to be lost there. And of course there is nothing wrong with getting lost, but still ...
Last year we visited the northernmost north of France.
That also has its space and charm. But abandoned industrial heritage and poverty are also important aspects in the region. We saw few classics. A lot of old, scrapped cars. And junkies.
This year we visited the granary of France and we ended up in the Bay of the Somme.
If you have to believe the internet info, then that is a vibrant cultural heart in a rustic setting. The latter is correct 100%. The landscape is wide with rolling fields and very deep panoramas. The road network is made for classic four and two-wheelers. A pleasure for the driver, the passenger and the classic itself. Because it can sometimes work for a while, but the environment still needs to stroll more. The bay of the Somme itself is a kind of wadden region. Including seals and that sort of scum. Only that effervescence does not yet succeed.
Picardy
The Picardy region was created in 1960 by the administrative merging of three departments: Somme, Oise and Aisne, named after their main rivers. The capital was Amiens. But Abbeville is just as nice and clearer. On the coast there are places such as Le Croton and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. These are sort of seaside resorts where it is 1971 at its best. The inland villages are often still hundreds of inhabitants large and shrinking.
And where you tap three mille in the South of France for 2 weeks in a house or apartment, we paid the first two weeks of July just 700 euros in the most rural setting you can imagine. And with a Liddl and an Aldi within a radius of ten kilometers, there was more than enough money left to go out for dinner - and affordable - a few times. And ovreral where you eat out, there a friendly staff member alerts you to the fact that rooms are also rented out to holidaymakers. The rooms are already there ... Now the vacationers still. We mention L'Auberge du Moulin d'Ecourt, www.auberge-moulin-eaucourt.fr because of the magnificent panoramic view and the perfect kitchen.
In terms of classics, there is little to see hidden in that region.
And in the two weeks we only saw one BX and one R4 that just had to work for a living. We did meet French classic enthusiasts who all complained that the Dutch had stolen all the nice classics from France. But we heard that twenty years earlier. The two 2CV's we saw were neatly restored. Young people in the region like to speak English. But people over thirty only do everything the French way. That is why it is useful to finally take the plunge this autumn and take a French course at the Alliance Française. That gives a lot more perspective to every French holiday. And if a Frenchman finds that as a tourist you've put some work into his language, he's just as amiable as a Brit.
We conclude with a warning
The smart Dutchman who thought that the greatest classical treasures would be hidden behind the respective plots had the ideal solution. He had taken a drone with him on vacation. The last thing he saw on his screen was a French farmer who, with a sweep, started attacking his shotgun. He decided to take his loss and fled and extended trot to his car and family.
