Thursday, April 30, 2026
End: Saint-Valery-sur-Somme
Kilometers: 10.8
Total: 227.3
We woke up early on the morning of our last day. I think we were all looking forward to finishing the trail, seeing the Somme empty into the sea, explore Saint-Valery a bit, then go home.
With our bags packed, we followed the route towards Saigneville. We follow the official route on all of our hikes, but I do wish that the route had simple taken us along the canal. It would have seemed a fitting end to see the river for a significant distance to its end.
Nevertheless, we hiked well in the morning, not stopping for much of anything. Saigneville and Boismont passed by, and we made our way back to the canal. We sat and appreciated bring close to the end of our adventure.
We had navigated the difficulties of Alex’s sprained ankle, I having to carry two packs for a significant distance. The distance we had hiked every day was more than we had done on previous hikes. Daniel had a bigger backpack for this trip. Soon we would finish the whole trip and celebrate.
Walking the last couple of kilometers on the canal, we were officially on a victory March to the finish, as more and more people appeared, mostly on bicycles.
Getting into Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, we saw the tourist train pass by on the drawbridge, and a massive amount of water being let out to sea at the lock.
We took a final photo together at the point where the route ends, though there was no official sign or marking. A bit anti-climactic, but we were still happy to have offivially hiked the Somme from source to sea.
We went along the riverfront to explore the town, then decide on our next order of business. I wanted to take a boat tour out to Point Hourdel, the last point of land. Before that, the kids wanted lunch.
I set off to bring back groceries and McDonald’s. It was close, but I made it back with just enough time for them to eat before we got on board.
The tour was fun, a fitting reward for our effort the past 11 days. No seals were sighted, but we experienced the bay, and the kids liked going out on the bow viewing deck to be splashed by the occasional wave.
Once we made it back to land, we rested for a while, before it was time to get on the tourist train. The Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme took us on a nice little ride to the nearby station at Noyelles-sur-Mer, where we got a train directly back to Paris.
