Baie de Somme – Discovering The Bay From The Sky
The Baie de Somme is rated as one of the most beautiful bays in the world, along with 43 others such as the San Francisco Bay in the United States and Along Bay in Vietnam.
After exploring the bay from the ground, I went to the local aerodrome to gain an unique perspective.
Follow along my adventure as I fly over the Baie de Somme in a tiny aircraft!
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The Location
The Baie de Somme is a unique destination, located in the North of France, 2 hours and a half away from Paris. The area is both known for the beauty of its landscapes and for the wide variety of wildlife living there. There are plenty of things to see and to do in the area: cliffs, sand, dunes, swamps, hiking, biking, … Today we’re flying over the Baie de Somme for an awesome perspective of this awesome place.
Do you know this feeling when you see satellite image of a place and it just looks STUNNING? Well, this is exactly the case with the Baie de Somme. Just look at this satellite image from Google Maps and you’ll understand what I mean.
After seeing this, I knew I had to fly over the area to have the most comprehensive experience of the Baie de Somme. When planning my 3 days trip to the Somme region, I got in touch with Somme Tourisme. Among many other activities, they gave me the opportunity to experience the Baie de Somme from the sky.
Prepping for the flight
To make sure we would fly over the bay at the best time, Somme Tourisme arranged the flight in the early afternoon, during low-tide. We made our way inland towards Abbeville, and followed closely our GPS not to miss our exit. We reached the local aerodrome, the Abbeville Aeroclub, where the owner and the pilots warmly welcomed us.
After leaving most of our stuff in the car (there is barely any space in the aircraft!) and getting equipped with a noise-cancelling headset (it gets SO noisy when you’re flying in the air), we waited for our pilot to prepare the plane.
As you can see, this is a rather small airplane; there are only 4 seats inside, and barely any space. Rather than feeling nervous, I was feeling extremely excited, already grinning from the thought of flying high above the bay. As our pilot motioned us to board the plane, we stepped on the right wing and climbed inside the cockpit. As soon as I sat in the passenger seat, I felt like a child dreaming about planes and flights. I was overwhelmed by the amount of clutches, buttons and indicators on the dashboard, and at this moment I felt grateful to have an experienced pilot to take us on this extraordinary journey.
Once he’d checked that everything was ok, our pilot started the plane and began to taxi towards the runway. That’s when my friend Raph thought it would be funny to say « Can’t we just take off from the grass? » Well, guess what? That’s exactly what our pilot did! He turned the plane around, started the engine, switched to full power, and we took off straight from the grass.
The Flight Over Baie de Somme
We flew over the mainland for a few minutes, and I am glad we did; it gave me time to get ready for the breathtaking view we were about to see. As we got closer to the shore, we started to see patterns form in the land below: because it was low tide, the water had receded, and unveiled the beauty it covered.
From high up in the sky, we were in the perfect position to see the river beds without water, forming long winding trails, leading to vast open sandbanks. Here and there, water was trapped and formed tiny lakes. The view we had from the sky that day was so different from the -already stunning- one was had on the ground; to be able to witness such beauty is what fuels my thirst for adventures.
Alright, enough of me talking: I’ll leave you with a few more photos of this incredible experience, that will -I hope- inspire you to go on more adventures, and that will probably leave you the same way it left Nesrine during the flight: speechless.
If you plan to visit France, you should definitely put the Baie de Somme and the Somme region high up on your list.
To plan your trip, you can check out Somme Tourisme’s website for inspiration, tips, suggestions and bookings.
For the flight itself, visit the Abbeville aerodrome for prices and contact info (if you can’t read French, open the link in Google Chrome, right click on the page and select « translate in English » ).
Craving more adventures? I’ve got what you need ? Check out these other travel stories:
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