Some hotels have restaurants for mid-day and evening meals. Many of the French-run Chambres d’hôte and the English-managed Bed-and-breakfast establishments will provide a packed lunch on request, and some will also provide an evening meal if requested in advance.

Towns such as Albert, Péronne, Doullens and, of course, Amiens have restaurants or brasserie-style bars which offer meals in the middle of the day – although they may stop serving lunch by about 2.00 pm; some of the latter do not provide meals in the evening. Café-bars are less likely to offer food.

Establishments offering meals put a menu up outside, so you can consider their fare and charges before entering; there will normally be a complete ‘menu’ of two or three courses which is modest in price and usually very good value. Local dishes include ‘Ficelle picarde’, a substantial savoury stuffed pancake, and ‘tarte au Maroilles’, a cheese flan made with the full-flavoured regional cheese. If you want an unusual local speciality, look for anguilles – either in the form of a smoked hors d’oeuvre or as a hot dish. The eels are fished in broad lagoons along the Somme, where eel-traps can be seen set in the current of the water.

It is easy to make up a picnic meal, buying ingredients either from a supermarket or a ‘charcuterie’, the French equivalent of a delicatessen. As well as providing the usual cooked meats, cheese, etc., they will have a range of ready-prepared salads, sold in plastic lidded containers of various sizes. They will usually also make up sandwiches using their cold meats – unlike the standard English sandwich, this will consist of a length of baguette sliced along the middle and filled, without butter. If you take your own picnic equipment, this is an excellent way of making sure of your mid-day meal – and don’t forget the bottle-opener/corkscrew!

As in Britain, very few villages now have shops, or bars/cafés providing meals, so don’t count on finding a meal easily in the rural areas of the battlefields – but you may be lucky and find a bar/café that will make you a sandwich or an omelette.
Remember also that many food shops are closed on Mondays; on the other hand, bakeries and confectioners (boulangerie, patisserie) are open on Sunday mornings.

Unless you specify otherwise, coffee will come black, in a fairly small cup, with wrapped sugar lumps and often a small biscuit. If you want white coffee, ask for it with milk or ‘un grand crème’, which will arrive in a larger cup with the milk already added.
Similarly, tea will generally come as a tea-bag with a cup of hot water, and without milk unless you ask for it. ‘Un thé au lait’ is the formula for achieving a small jug of milk with the tea.

This is not a wine-producing area, but French regional wines of various types (and cost) will always be available, and the ‘house’ red, white or rosé will usually be very reasonable. Beer may be Continental-style lager or brands familiar from the UK. ‘Bière de garde’ is made in northern France and Belgium and is more like British bitter beer.