| Somme, France July 2001 |
| Vron |
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We stayed in a sleepy village called Vron, but after having window shutters closed in our faces everywhere we walked we renamed it the "Village of the Damned"! The local bar was bizarre and doubled up as the village shop, but there was however a good Boulangerie and very nice looking restaurant. |
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| Berck, Le Touqet & Montreuil-sur-Mer |
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We
hired a peddle cart and cycled like lunatics around Berck on a Sunday
Morning. Steve called them Wally Wagons! I painfully snapped something
in my hip trying to peddle hard whilst laughing too much! We visited Le
Touqet three times during our visit. It did have much more shops to "mooch"
around than Berck. Montreuil was shut during our visit as it was Bastille
Day!
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| Thiepval Memorial, near Albert - Some Corner of a Foreign Field. |
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Thiepval Memorial is the largest British War Memorial in the world. It contains the names of over 72,000 missing World War One British soldiers. During the "Battle of the Somme" over 57,000 British soldiers lost their lives in a single day. The cemetary only has 300 graves. We visited on a paticularly grey day which added to its solemnity. |
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| Notre Dame de Lorette, near Lens |
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20,000 white crosses represent only a fraction of the 120,000 who died during a bloody three month battle in 1915. Such a waste of life. |
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Joke de jour, to lighten up the day, was that we went through Arras (pronounced 'Our Arse'!) |
| Abbaye de Valloires, Argoules |
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The
abbey was built by cistercian monks in 1137 but has been rebuilt several
times.
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In
its past life it has also been an asylum for the insane, and apparently
it is still used as such? The formal gardens are only a recent addition.
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