Arrondissement de Valenciennes

It is trully amazing how beautifully presented and preserved the war memorials, museums and cemeteries are in this part of the world. What was also surprising is the number of Commonwealth cemeteries blotted across the landscape, on the sides of roads and tucked down laneways. Each of them is surrounded by perfectly manicured green grass, blooming flowers at the gravestone, all tastefully presented. It is quite breathtaking.

We visited Carrière Wellington in Arras which were a series of abandoned medieval chalk quarries which were used in WWI. New Zealand soldiers dug tunnels to connect them, essentially building an underground city which housed 20,000 soldiers prior to the Battle of Arras. They essentially popped out of the ground right at the German line and took them by surprise. The sheer scale of the underground city was incredible. The NZ soldiers were digging and clearing 80 metres of tunnel a day! My grandfather's war diary has him in Arras on the 26th March 1918. On the 5th of April 1918 there is a diary entry which states "Captured by Fritz".

We also visited the Musee de Somme in Albert which was in an underground tunnel where it laid out the various scenes of combat and life in the trenches. We stopped at a boulangerie for baguette and had lunch in a little square in Albert. My grandfather's war diary states he arrived in Albert on 10th February 1917, leaving on the 11th. He then came back on the 13th April 1917.

A long day given we didn't get back to our farmhouse until 8pm, but since I was still wearing sunglasses because it was so sunny, it still felt early. I think we are quite easily falling into the later evening lifestyle of Europe!Les mer