KEY POINTS:
"Ill have a bottle of Evian, a rusted WWI spur and a spent bullet please."
"That'll be 10.5 euros," says the young man in the makeshift drinks and souvenirs stand at the Lochnagar Crater. It seems like an absolute bargain for demilitarised, authenticated WWI relics.
The Picardy province,
to the north of Paris, was the scene of the Battle of Somme, in which almost three million men from more than 20 nationalities fought - New Zealanders included. Of those, 1.2 million were killed, wounded or missing in action.
The crater was behind German lines, the result of a British tunnel dug underground and set with explosives on July 1, 1916. Several explosions were detonated simultaneously, one of which is a couple of miles away and is known as The Glory Hole. Francois, our guide on this tour of the Western Front, waves his hand in its direction. It doesn't exist anymore, having been filled in and used for farming.
Only two weeks earlier, someone had uncovered German human remains. It happens a lot.
Life goes on and many locals freely admit they don't like to mention the war. "We keep it in here," says one woman putting a clenched fist on her heart.
The reason Lochnagar Crater is still a 100-metre by 30-metre deep hole in the earth is because Richard Dunning, a Brit, bought the site 20 years ago so that it could be preserved.
Francois doesn't approve of my acquisition, telling our party a little later he thinks all artefacts should be left where they are. Pointed stare in my direction. I consider myself chastened, but not enough to return them from whence they came.
On this unseasonably hot spring day, the Western Front is picturesque - all gentle farmland patchworked with pretty crops and blue sky interrupted only by the odd wispy cloud, like trails of exhaled Gitanes.
We start the day at the War Museum Historial de Peronne. In the book I buy about the battle, there is photographic evidence of the difference 90 years makes. The area in WWI was a muddy, treeless wasteland.
Confession: the History Channel and those endless war documentaries have never held my interest, but a picture in the museum changes everything.
There are etchings by Otto Dix, who enlisted in the German army. He began to show his hatred of war in the art he did from 1920. "An assault troop advancing towards the gas" is the single image that makes me understand how terrifying and real war is. The gas-masked men look like unholy monsters.
We drive to Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, one of 457 cemeteries in the area and one which is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
There are a team of gardeners mowing between the gravestones. New Zealanders, Australians and Brits - including the prophetically named A. Deadman - are buried here. Further on, the simple New Zealand Memorial stands at a fork in a country road. "From the uttermost ends of the earth" it proclaims.
But it is the Beaumont-Hamel, a Canadian-owned monument to honour the Newfoundland men who fell here that really resonates, possibly because the trenches have been preserved. When you walk in them, towards where the Germans were waiting, the feeling of dread the soldiers would have known is diminished somewhat by the beautiful scenery, but I am still lost for words.
Touring battlefields and cemeteries isn't the tourism I usually go for, but it is absorbing and has instilled a sense of respect and gratitude for those who fought. For that alone it is worth it.
War isn't the only reason to come to Picardy though and there are many more touristy things that make this area worthy of a get-out-of-Paris visit.
Some guidebooks have it in for the area. "It's industrial", "it's ugly" "don't stop" they plead. They make it sound like a Gallic Panmure.
How wrong they are. There is industry but it's the scene of Chanel manufacturing, and has two major perfume factories.
Crumbling castles, royal palaces, lofty cathedrals, the second largest forest in France and some pretty good food make it as lovely as any French destination you'd care to mention.
This wasn't immediately obvious to us though. After a long, complicated train trip to Compiegne from Paris - it should have been 40 minutes from Gare du Nord, instead of the three hours it took us - we only made it as far as the outside of the historic town that evening.
The views back across to the train station didn't endear it to us.
But as soon as we turned the corner into the old town the following morning its charm became apparent. The place was being readied for Jeanne d'Arc fete weekend, and preparations included erecting castle-like edifices at strategic points for the medieval procession.
Joan of Arc is a big deal here. She was captured in these parts during the Siege of 1430. The Saint-Jacques Church, with its 13th century exterior, is where Joan came to pray on the morning she was captured.
The church is also proud of its relics: the knife of the circumcision of Jesus, a nail from the Passion of Christ and part of a dress of the Virgin Mary.
From there, it's a short walk round the delightful town to the magnificent Chateau de Compiegne, once a favoured royal residence when their highnesses ventured out of Paris for a bit of hunting. "For the king, it was a little palace," says our guide, as we behold the enormous edifice.
It must have been a romantic spot. Marie Antoinette first met the Dauphin - later Louis XVI - here, Marie Louise met Napoleon in 1810 for the first time and Napoleon III proposed to the Empress Eugenie at Compiegne, too.
Today the chateau is a museum except it's closed on a Tuesday, the day we visited, so we had to content ourselves with a walk through the stunning natural English-style Parc du Chateau. It was a warm day and locals had brought picnics to eat as they sat in the sun in this most beautiful of green spaces.
The old royal forest surrounding Compiegne is 15,000 hectares of beeches and oaks with roads winding through it. Every so often, there's a road sign with a picture of a deer to remind you to take care. It is France's second-largest forest and extremely picturesque, especially when dappled in sunlight - just the way they draw forests in fairytales.
We could easily have driven to the Armistice Clearing, minutes away and site of the WWI armistice signing. But it was a Tuesday and therefore closed, so we went instead to the cutest of villages, Saint Jean-Aux-Bois, for lunch at A la Bonne Idee.
I didn't get much sense out of my dining companions. They were too busy making noises about the phenomenal food at this Le Bottin Gourmand-rated restaurant, which is a French rating system similar to the Michelin guide. Me? I ate a plate of lettuce leaves to start, followed by an omelette. Vegetarians are not much tolerated in this place.
At least I didn't want a lie-down after such a gastronomic blow-out and was happy to head off to yet another pretty old French town, this time Pierrefonds with its spectacular medieval fortress of Louis d'Orleans. It was restored at the request of Napoleon III. Luc Besson's film Joan of Arc, starring Milla Jojovich, was partly filmed here, and with its cinematic good looks, it's obvious why.
Another thing Picardy is good for is horticultural contemplations.
The forest is majestic, but Andre Van Beek's Saint Paul garden is on a much more human scale. It is one of 72 parks and gardens open to the public; this one can be visited from June to October. An artist in the French impressionist style, Monsieur Van Beek tends his large, domestic garden year-round so he may paint the unfolding scenes in the manner of Monet. Going by some of the oil paintings in his on-site gallery, he's fond of irises. But he's also partial to the floating gardens called Les Hortillonnages in Amiens, one of Picardy's largest towns. The gardens stretch for 300ha, have been cultivated since the Middle Ages by market gardeners and can be accessed only by boat. There are many small plots in which these locals come for the day to tend their land and hang out in their purpose-built huts. A ride down the pleasant and tranquil canals is one of the most meditative things to do in Amiens.
Another day, another cathedral. This time it's Amiens' Notre Dame, twice as big as the Paris one and a real knockout in the Gothic style. It can fit 15,000 people standing (or a 14-storey council flat development - take your pick).
War always manages to have a way of getting a look-in here. The cathedral is most famous for its relic of part of the skull of Saint John the Baptist, but it also houses a simple monument remembering the New Zealanders who fell during the war.
The French may not like to mention the war but there's no escaping it for long in these parts, nor would you want there to be. It gives the Kiwi visitor a real sense of connection to the place.
Back in Auckland I feel that connection each time I cast a glance at my demilitarised spur as I flick to the History Channel.
Fiona Hawtin flew to France courtesy of Cathay Pacific.
GETTING THERE
Cathay Pacific flies to Paris daily. Check www.cathaypacific.com for current deals. Trains leave from Paris train station Gare du Nord regularly to Picardy towns.
PLACES TO STAY
Hotel Mercure in Amiens and Hotel des Beaux Arts in Compiegne.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.Picardietoruisme.com
www.somme-battlefields.com
www.amiens.com/tourisme
www.andre-vanbeek.com
www.compiegne-tourisme.fr
