France 5th August & 6th August 2009

5^th & 6^th Aug 2009 – Albert (Somme) 2nights

The somme - it is so hard to describe the emotions as you travel through this most tranquil and absolutely beautiful part of rural France, knowing that the poppy-edged fields you are looking over or standing beside, growing wheat or vegetables of various kinds, contain the bones and identification tags of tens of thousands of young men, of the millions sent to their doom.

We stayed at the municipal camp site in Albert which was at the side of a beautiful stream, complete with picture perfect ducks; oh the weather was fab too! The next day being in the Somme area we decided to explore, we hit the tourist information office in town, gathering up a cycling tour of the area. Well we set off……along a main road complete with trucks (not my idea of fun) it was baking hot, we had no water & there was no destination in sight eventually after a LOT of strenuous cycling we reached the Lochnagar Crater which is one of several which remain visible on the Western Front today. Lochnagar crater is well signposted (as 'la Grande Mine'), to the right from the main road if you are travelling from Albert in the direction of Bapaume. There is parking near the crater. It is possible to walk all around the edge of the crater, but access to the crater itself is not permitted. It was created by the explosion of two charges of ammonal (36,000 lbs and 24,000 lbs 60 feet apart) under a German position called Schwaben Hohe, and the crater originally measured some 300 feet across and 90 feet deep. Unfortunately, the attack in this sector on the 1st of July was not successful, despite the mine, and the losses sustained particularly by the Tyneside Scottish and other units of the 34th Division were heavy. On reflection my strenuous cycle was nothing in comparison to anything these poor men had suffered. All along the route there were graves amongst the fields of corn interspersed with poppies. We decided to visit the Musee Somme in the town centre, I had read a little about it which I must say was a tad off putting, but we decided to give it a go anyway! I must say we were pleasantly surprised. The Somme Trench Museum is set in a series of underground shelters that were used by the local people on many occasions to shelter from invaders. The last time they were used for this purpose was during The Second World War. The museum is however devoted to The First World War as the town and region suffered greatly during that terrible conflict. As you drive around northern France, in particular The Somme, The Aisne, The Nord and The Pas de Calais (all known as départements or counties / provinces) you cannot help but be reminded of the slaughter that took place in this part of France. A plethora of cemeteries and memorials have been built to honour those who died. We emerged from the museum into the local park, which was the ultimate in tranquillity; we decided to bask in the sun and enjoy the peace, so copped a squat on the grass and enjoyed our packed lunch! We meandered back to camp and did a spot of washing followed by some sunbathing. Whilst we sat out we could not help but be amused by the local children on site, 3 girls and a little boy each had a toy dog on a lead, whilst taking their pooches for a walk one by one they stopped off at the local tree to allow their pooches to have a pee which consisted of holding the stuffed animal against the tree and saying pisssss – well it had us both in fits of giggles….oh to be young again! We followed dinner by a stroll along the stream to feed the ducks, then a nightcap of baileys whilst sitting outside.

7^th Aug 09 – Destination Forges Les Eaux – prior to departing Albert we decided to tour some of the memorial sites but in the van this time as my little body wasn’t upto a 40 mile trip by pedal power! We visited Thiepval memorial. After the War ended, Thiepval was chosen as the location for the Memorial to the Missing to commemorate those who died in the Somme sector before the 20th of March 1918 and have no known grave. This is the largest and most imposing of the Memorials to the Missing, and visiting here is a moving and sobering experience. Those who died in the Somme after 20th March 1918 are commemorated at Pozieres.

The Thiepval Memorial is the largest of the Memorials to the Missing, and the last on the Western Front to be unveiled (one day after that at Arras). Negotiations to purchase the site were started in the late 1920s, and the memorial was unveiled by the Prince of Wales (then President of the Imperial War Graves Commission) on Monday the 1st of August, 1932. The Prince's speech, part in French, the rest in English, was carried on radio broadcasts, and he called the memorial "the crowning stone" of the work of the IWGC. He added that "our first thoughts today should be with the relatives of those whose death has purchased our current freedom". Just seven years before the clouds of World War were to descend once more, he hoped that this was the opening chapter in a "Book of Life" from which the horrors of war would be banished, and that it would be a call to a better civilization. At the end of the Ceremony, the Last Post was played.

On the panels of the arches are the names of those who have no known grave, and are thus 'the Missing'. However, many of these may be buried in the Somme, but in an unknown grave marked as 'Known unto God'. The Memorial covers the missing of Britain and South Africa.

Behind the Memorial is a joint British - French Cemetery, intended to symbolise the losses both suffered. The idea of a joint memorial of some kind had been suggested as early as 1923, and La Ferte-sous-Jouarre was suggested as a possible site, as was Amiens. A Memorial to British and Empire Missing was in fact constructed at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre.

We also saw the Ulster Memorial which is a memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division. The memorial was officially opened on November 19, 1921 and is a very close copy of Helen's Tower which stands in the grounds of the Clandeboye Estate, near Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland. Many of the men of the Ulster Division trained in the estate before moving to England and then France early in 1916.

After a very humbling morning & a true appreciation that ‘freedom is not free’, we headed for Forges Les Eaux where we stayed on a great aire, after reading our guide it said the aire was free for the first night which was incorrect. This evening we went into the one horse town for dinner which ended up being an overly priced pizza!

9/8/09 – Brezolles – Next day we headed off for Giverney, the weather was outrageously beautiful, en-route we passed through a stunning little town called Lyons-la-Foret it is set in a beautiful forest area approx 30kms east of Rouen – we will definitely be paying this place a return visit. En-route we passed under a 3.6m bridge, when I asked Mal if we would be ok on the height (as I always do) he replied as we went under yeh we’ll be ok just!!! Whilst on this little leg of our travels we decided on the new name for our motorhome Ardennes (because it is ‘our den’ and Ardennes is between France and Germany and the new van has a German base with a French top)! Once again we had made a boo boo with our fuel, forgetting it was Sunday we needed fuel and drove for miles to find a petrol station where we could fill up!! We finally arrived at Giverney but were not allowed to park on the huge car parks which were easily accessible, instead we were told to go up the ‘tiny’ side streets to a practically inaccessible car park right in the centre of all the tourists – bless Mal he managed to get parked up, I had told him to forget and get the hell out of there. We took a stroll around the area deciding not to visit Monet’s house and gardens because the queues where quite unbelievable and it was baking hot – I concluded in my new life I did not need to see anything enough to queue for about 1 hour!! Sorry Monet c’est la vie. My advice would be don’t go anywhere near in your motorhome park away from the town and cycle to it, don’t go on the weekend either and get there very early to avoid such long queues! The surrounding area was absolutely breathtaking.

We decided to continue on our sightseeing and head to Versailles – another boo boo! Upon arrival at Versailles we picked out a great parking spot along with many other motorhomes, after a very short walk we arrived at the gates. We strolled leisurely through the gardens, after purchasing our tickets to see the rest of the gardens and the palace we embarked on our queuing which went on for around an hour, but on this occasion we thought it must be worth it. We finally arrived at the front presented our tickets to be told ‘they are not the correct tickets, they are just for the gardens’, then to be instructed to go and queue for tickets elsewhere then queue again in the queue we had already queued in – now I know what you readers are thinking too many uses of queue here! You are correct so after letting the lady know how inept they were we went and explored the gardens for which we did have tickets! Once we had had our fill of the gardens we made our way back to the van and continued our journey staying on an aire in Brezolles.