My Village
Dompierre sur Authie
My local village has about 300 inhabitants, no shops and no bar. However, to make up for this apparent lack of excitement we do have a post box, a telephone cabin, and re-cycling containers.
I have met buses on the roads, which explains why we also have a bus shelter. The service is definitely of the: once every third Wednesday, in alternate months and with a prevailing wind variety.
The nearest hypermarket is a ten minute drive away in Hesdin where there is a good range of shopping facilities.
As my house is on one of the roads leading into Dompierre, the village for me, is almost our four houses. A Dutch family who have bought here, Jean-Marie and his children, me and then, Guy and Térese our local senior citizens.
By a freak of mapping my village is situated in the Department of the Somme (80 in numerical terms) as opposed to the Pas-de-Calais (62) for all the other villages along our road. I presume this is due to the chateaux in the village of Dompierre, on the southern side of the Authie River. The local barons at one time must have held sway over our hamlet as well, for elsewhere the Authie forms the boundary between the two departments.
It does strike me that there is almost nothing for the children in the area to do. No football pitch, play areas or anything. That said on my side of the river, children consists of Jean-Marie's three horrors who seem to be more intent on terrorising the locals than playing on swings.
The road running past the house is convenient, I can turn right and be on the beach in thirty minutes or turn left and be on the Somme Battlefields within an hour. Belgium is just over an hour away if I want to visit Ieper. For things a little more ancient we are situated almost midway between the two battlefields of Crécy and Azincourt.
The A16 Autoroute is about 20 minutes away giving access to the channel ports within a comfortable hour and a quarter taking it steady.
Departmental loyalties seem to run deep, and with my interest in things to do with the First World War living on the Somme is a greater cachet. Other advantages are obvious; apart from the fact that my car has an 80 registration and not a miserable 62, the Somme is further south meaning winters are not as chilly and the summers are warmer. Oh and of course 80 drivers are more careful than those from 62, and you wouldn't want one of those 59 (Nord) tourists anywhere near your car on the road.
In a few years time car registration numbers are going to change to an All-France system which has caused an uproar here. To assuage tender sensibilities we have been told that we can have a Departmental insignia at one end of the plate with the F for France at the other.
There are wild boar in the woods behind the house and seeing herds of deer in the fields - or just in front of the car on the road, is not uncommon. Rabbits are common to everywhere I suppose but we also have hares out in the fields.
Bird life is very varied due to our proximity to the Bay of the Somme and the migratory routes. Small birds of prey, owls, flights of swallows, heron, pheasants - but perhaps surprisingly none of the smaller birds of the sparrow, chaffinch size. We also have bats around the house - and sometimes inside as well when the doors are open during the summer evenings!
Of course the French are reputed to shoot and eat anything that flies, and during the hunting season that reputation seems to extend to anything on the ground as well.
See also
The Bird Sanctuary at Marquenterre