July holiday, 28 July

I did NOT sleep well last night. Snuggled down around 10:30, and came awake at 01:00 needing to spend a penny, which is normal. Went straight back to sleep to be woken up a couple of hours later by very heavy rain, which meant I had to get up and close the skylights as the rain was coming in. And then I just didn't sleep well after that, so went back to sleep this morning after the SW had gone for his run.

After breakfast, we drove to the Armistice clearing and went to the museum there, which was rather super. They had a full-sized replica of the railway carriage in which it was signed, laid out as it had been, and then various exhibits about life in the trenches, including a huge collection of 3D photos that I couldn't look at for long as they made my eyes hurt. There were also displays of gifts made by soldiers and sent home, and explanations of some of the shifts they got up to - pipes and lighters, for instance, worked better than cigarettes and matches in the very wet trenches..... and other improvisations.

Then there was the 1940 room, showing how the museum had been destroyed or removed by the Nazis, with only the statue of Maréchal Foch allowed to remain.  And how it had been rebuilt in the 1950s.

Then we drove on, via the usual supermarket, a Super U this time, to a place called Ourscamp, where there was an abbey and where we had lunch, and then on through Noyon, where Jean Calvin was born, and so to this little village of Riqueval, where we are parked up in a canal museum courtyard (two spaces for motor homes, both now full, plus services), and will visit the museum in the morning.  The SW went for a walk and explored the area a bit.