Now totally oblivious to the pumice clouds floating somewhere overhead from
the volcano in Iceland, we had a leisurely breakfast and gathered our goods, chattels
and tour stragglers for the trip by coach north to Peronne on the incredible
French tollway system. The French countryside is an amalgam of rustic
beauty and technological excellence, green plains that would have looked
the same when our troops traversed them in 1916 pierced by the TGV lines, tollways
and wind farms of the 21st century.
We arrived in Peronne as the light was fading, in time for a visit to the
Great War Museum, a stroll around this beautiful city in the evening, followed by a good night's sleep ready for our first battlefield tours in the morning.