Vimy

Today we were thinking of going to Givernay…where Monet’s garden is because this looked like it was going to be a good day, but found out it was closed so decided to do the Canadian National  Vimy Ridge Battlefield Park

I like this…one day walking, walking, walking and more walking and the next day driving (me as a passenger! I‘m in the back seat writing this now))….I’m in my 6^th week of touring and my feet need a rest every couple of days!

We set the car GPS to a nearby town, because nothing comes up for the actual Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial on the “sites/attractions” and off we set…..about 190km away. We left at about 11am and got there about 2:00 pm. There are no signs around the area or on the highway telling where it is at, we just knew it was near the town of Arras. We used the hand held GPS that had a special cache loaded in to get us the rest of the way. We were looking forward to some lunch before the tour at 3:00...but they don’t even have a chocolate bar for sale. I really think a Timmies would do well there!

We explored the information centre while we were waiting for our tour…well done…just enough information display and a short film. By this time the temperature had dropped and Sheryl put on her jeans and runners and I put on my longer pants, socks and my rain jacket on top of my fleece. It was chilly…even the guides were all bundled up.

We were on a tour with about 20 fifteen year old girls, their teacher and a pair of chaperons! The girls behaved very well….probably because our guide was cute French Canadian who was about 21! He was a very good guide very comfortable with his subject and had interesting pieces of information and stories as we went through the tunnels and the trenches.  The area is made of chalk so the tunnels were easier to dig out there than if they had to dig through dirt and rock.  It was a very interesting insight into WWI in the trenches, especially since it was so cold and drizzly, you could imagine what it might have been like in the cold, and rain and mud.  One thing I found interesting was that the actual two lines of trenches (the Germans and the Canadians) was only a about 50 metres apart....so close together,

We then spent some time at the actual Memorial about .5 km away from the informations…a massive work because it is sitting on the ridge it towers 110 metres over the plains below. Built out of Croatian limestone it was started in 1925 and completed in 1936, the land that the Memorial Park is on 100 hecters that the French Government granted "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes". It also includes 2 cemeteries.  As you drive through the countryside in the area you see cemeteries all over...well kept, with a white head stones and usually a memorial statue surrounded by a fence.

See the little black figure on the base of the Memorial
--that is Sheryl!

We left there at 5:30 looking for supper (I hadn’t eaten since 8:00am). One of the young Canadian student guides is staying in Arras and said there was lots of restaurants around the 2 squares….so off we go, by 6:00 we were at the Grand square, an impressive place…..Flemmish house around the outside and the inside had a playground, a parking lot and a large sandy area that they were playing beach volleyball on. We walked around the square and every restaurant (there was about 8) was closed or the kitchens were closed so it was now just a bar. Looks like dinner is over by 6 here!

 

One young girl said “fast food”….so we off we went following the McDonalds signs….there is not one on every corner like at home….only one very new one just on the outskirts of town. So we ate by 7:00 and continued home (as I was writing yesterday’s blog in the back seat looking up every once in a while….and closing my eyes….I think Paul really likes driving these roads!) and arrived home about 9:00pm.