It was a sunny Saturday afternoon when we first sighted the coast of France. As we entered the Baie de Somme it was alive with boats. Craft of all shapes and sizes were taking advantage of the sunshine and the light airs.

My husband and I were at the first stage of fulfilling our ambition to take our 35 ft. sailing catamaran, CHEFREN, through the French inland waterways to the Mediterranean. This was to be the beginning of "working to live" and the end of "living to work".

We had chosen the 'long route' from the Channel to the Med, as opposed to the shorter Canal du Midi, because we had all summer to enjoy the experience, and wanted to savour the country, its people, its food and its wine.

Our friends were surprised that we could take such a large boat (5 m or 15 ft. wide) on this route, but these are waterways which have been used commercially since the 16th Century, when a system was first created to link the Loire with the Seine, and the Saône with the Rhône, providing the first highway across France.

This ancient town, founded in 611, is famous for many things, including salt export, and being the place where William the Conqueror embarked in 1066. The little chequered brick chapel of St. Valéry is said to commemorate where the saint lived and was buried. It was the first day of the hunting season and the marshes on either side of the estuary resounded to the sound of gunshot as the local duck population was decimated.

St. Valéry is a picturesque little place and Victor Hugo wrote that it was "charming at dusk, the moon which went down an hour after sunset, descended slowly towards the sea, the sky was white, the earth brown, and portions of the moon leapt from wave to wave like balls of gold in the hands of a juggler".

Stocking up at our fist French supermarché was a priority, but my rusty French confused "toute droite" with "tournez droite" and we became lost in the fishermen's quarter, where the cobbled streets were lined with typical single-storey French cottages.

We encountered here the first of many small acts of kindness that were shown to us by the French people. We were given a lift in a private car back to the supermarché, a couple of kilometres back.

After entering the canal system, and having our mast removed and laid on deck so that we could negotiate the many bridges we would encounter, we set off for Abbéville, a town which had been reduced to rubble in 1940, and completely rebuilt. This part of France had been the scene of fierce and bloody fighting during both world wars.

We had been warned that fishermen on the canals might be rude and uncooperative, but we found them extremely friendly, particularly on this stretch. Many of them gave us the Victory V sign when they saw our flag, and at one point, on our approach to Amiens, two elderly fishermen sitting on canvas stools tending their rods, stood up with one accord and raised their baseball caps in salute. The Allies contribution is still fresh in people's memories.