Sunday October 3 was a bright, sunny day. We had to drive to Genevieve's in Toutencourt for dinner at noon, so we left fairly early. The shortest route is via the Pont de Normandie (photo at right). Everyone had us convinced it would only take two hours to reach Toutencourt. Neither one of us wanted to take that bridge or any of the other large bridges that cross the Seine below Rouen. Our map showed a small bridge at Duclair, and by heading in that direction, we could still avoid Rouen and reach Toutencout in less than three hours.

Everything went smoothly, but a bit slow until we got to Duclair. The bridge that my map showed was actually a ferry crossing. Even that wasn't much of a problem. The river is narrow at Duclair and the ferry was large enough to hold at least 30 cars. We drove onto the ferry and within a few minutes we were on our way again.

The national highways we took were very good, but we had to go farther than we originally thought we would. We realized that we were not going to make it to Genevieve's house in three hours by our original route. To gain some time, I decided that we would take an "A" highway (similar to our I system) south for four kilometers to another "A" highway. We followed what I thought was an on-ramp to the second "A" highway and found that we were heading straight into Rouen!

The road we were on was an express route along the Seine which we were familair with, except we didn't know which end of the route we were on. There is a main highway around Rouen that is accessible from the road we were on. Our mistake was following the signs for Amiens. That's where we were going, but following that sign took us into the city! All was not lost at this point. Fortunately, Rouen is a relatively small city, and as it was Sunday morning, it only took 20 minutes to drive through the city to a point where we connected with the "A" highway we wanted.

The rest of the drive went smoothly. We stopped to call Genevieve to let her know we would be late. The trip from Amiens to Toutencourt was excellent. Genevieve's brother-in-law Narcisse had set a large white bucket near the road so we wouln't miss her house, but we knew exactly where it was. They were waiting to welcome us at the front door. It was 1:30 p.m. and we were really late for dinner!

Dinners are to be enjoyed in France, and even though other things were planned for the afternoon, we didn't rush through dinner. We had appetizers, quiche, cheese, and of course, some wine.

After dinner we were off to the Historial of the Great War, a museum in Peronne (below right). The museum traces the changes in everyday life from before World War I until after the war. There are two rooms dedicated to the war itself. The first depicts the early years when the soldiers wore bright colored uniforms and even armour. The second war room shows how the armies changed to fight in a war that none of the leaders had envisioned. Narcisse (below left) had been in the French army during World War II. He knows a lot about World War I since much of the fighting in the Somme region of France took place within a few miles of Toutencourt. He gave us his own interpretations of the artifacts displayed in the Historial. This was Narcisse's first trip to the museum and he really enjoyed every minute of it.

On the way back to Toutencourt we stopped to look at the Château d'Hénencourt which was built during the 17th and 18th centuries. As you can see from the drawing below, it was orginally a symmetrical building. To the left is the farm associated with the château. The farm is still operating.

The left wing of the château was destroyed during World War I, but the rest remains and is still occupied by the relatives of the original family.