We began with a few days in Paris. Luck was not with us! Our Icelandair flight via Reykjavik was late, thus robbing us of quality time in Paris. The first evening, we strolled in the drizzle to the Marais to enjoy a falafel at L'As du Fallafel. However, it was a (minor) Jewish holiday, so the restaurant was closed (we consoled ourselves with a fairly good falafel across the road).
Our unfortunate luck continued the next day (in spite of verifying opening hours online before we set out):
I was looking forward to visiting the Picasso Museum, since it had been closed for renovations on my three previous trips to Paris. When I arrived, I was told that the top two floors (which contain his best work) were closed to the public that day! I made do with the lower floors (at a reduced rate).
Meanwhile, while I was at the Picasso, Jeff walked over to the Carnavalet, only to find that the opening hours had changed for that day! There's always an upside, though, in Paris: he found this beautiful park (with free Wifi) to pass the time.
More disappointments to come: we took the Metro to the new Fondation Louis Vuitton, only to discover that the museum was closed due to Fashion Week! The building is magnificent, shaped like Gehry's trademark fish.
Our next stop was the Rodin Museum. As we exited the Metro, we noticed the scaffolding - yup, closed for renovations. Jeff was ready to scream! A baguette sandwich calmed us down, and we salvaged the day by (re)visiting the Carnavelet, focusing on the French Revolution collection for our upcoming course at the ALLTO, and having a delicious dinner with my book-club buddy, Judith at Saotico.
The Picasso, LV, and Rodin will have to wait for our next visit.
Our remembrance trip began the next morning. We took the train to Lille, rented a car (an adventure in itself, since the Thrifty concession was operated by Hertz, and there was no signage), and drove (getting mildly lost) to the Louvre Lens, a regional branch of the Louvre (Paris). According to the museum's website, the decision to build it on the site of a former mine yard is highly symbolic. It is a way for France to express its gratitude to this part of the country that has suffered so much from war and intensive coal-mining, followed by the closing of the last pit in 1986. It is hoped that this museum will help to regenerate the region, and help to modernize its image. In the background of the photo on the right, you can see one of the coal slag heaps that dot the region. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
From the museum, we drove to the Château d'Aubry in Valenciennes, where we would be staying with Susan and John for the next few nights. Sue is masterful at finding charming castles, villas, and farmhouses. We had benefitted from her expertise previously in the south of France and Italy, and she certainly didn't disappoint us on this trip. The Aubry looks magnificent, but as we were checking in, John warned us that it was a bit like Fawlty Towers! True words! We immediately upgraded our tiny room (that's saying a lot, since Jeff and I are notoriously frugal), and then had a fun time finding the toilet closet in our new room (it was diagonally across from the washroom). Retrofitting at its worst. However, the sun was shining, the garden was beautiful, and the food and wine were French.
After breakfast, we used our outdated (2007) GPS to get us to Vimy. Unbeknownst to us, the GPS was programmed to avoid highways, so it took almost two hours to reach the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. This site, along with the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, is maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada. On a ridge overlooking the bucolic fields below, this imposing and impressive stone sculpture conveys a message of prayer and rest. The names of thousands of Canadian soldiers who were killed during WWI, and who have no known grave, are inscribed on the monument. Vimy was Canada's coming of age: it was the first time that all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in battle together. Over 10,000 Canadian soldiers were either killed or wounded. These staggering numbers were just beginning to soak into our psyches as we quietly walked around the monument. In the fields nearby, sheep grazed in the fenced-off trenches. There were signs prohibiting visitors from trespassing, since there are still live land mines underground.
A short distance from the monument is the visitors centre, staffed by Canadian university students. These students also lead guided tours of the tunnels and trenches. The most frightening aspect of the tunnels is that the German tunnels were literally on the other side of the walls, and the soldiers on each side could hear each other moving about. There are excellent descriptions of the tunnels in Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong, which I recently read. Speaking of books, I would also recommend Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Philippe Claudel's By a Slow River (also called Grey Souls). All of these novels depict the horrors, as well as the tedium, of WWI.
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On our way to Arras, we stopped to pay our respects at Canadian Cemetery No. 2 located within the Vimy Memorial Park. (We literally couldn't drive more than 10 km without coming across another Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery [UK, Australia/ New Zealand, Canada, British colonies] by the side of the road)
Arras was a welcome diversion after our gut-wrenching visit to Vimy. It is an old town (restored after the extensive damage of WWI), replete with a main square surrounded by Baroque town houses, a Gothic town hall and a Belfry (UNESCO World Heritage). While Jeff and I climbed the belfry to get a view of the city, John and Sue succumbed to coffee and pastry at a café in the square (two figures in red). Jeff and I took a long walk around the old streets, and came across the house of the infamous Maximilien Robespierre, where he lived a few years prior to his Reign of Terror.
The highlight of the next day was our visit to the Centre historique minier Lewarde (mining museum). The guided hardhat tour is authentic, from the cloakroom filled with miners' clothes hanging from the rafters, to the bowels of the mines themselves. There's also an excellent museum with photos and memorabilia of the daily life of the miners and their families. All of the mines in this area have now closed.
We also visited the town of Douai nearby. The Gothic bell tower (beffroi) in the City Hall holds the largest carillon in France. (Like Arras, it is part of the collective group of UNESCO World Heritage towers in France and Belgium). The four of us climbed to the top to see the bells, and then visited the main rooms of the city hall on the ground floor (nowadays they can be rented for special events).
A great day, capped by dinner at Les 3 Brasseurs, which also has branches in Montreal!
We checked out of the Château d'Aubry the next morning, and after croissants and café at Paul's (my go-to chain in France and England), set off for our next lodgings, Clos du Clocher in Gueudecourt. The GPS only failed us once, when it led us through a tractor road in Bapaume. The duck hunters wielding their shotguns on the side of the road gave us very strange looks, until we realized that we were "off-piste".
That afternoon, the four of us visited Cité Souterraine de Naours, a centuries-old underground sanctuary for villagers who feared invasion. Mildly interesting. (Note John taking a nap during our visit to the caves!)
Then on to Amiens with its most magnificent 13th century Gothic Cathedral!!
The four of us split up for a few hours, and Jeff and I walked and walked, visiting the belfry (alas, locked so we couldn't climb it), the clock, the library, and the Musée de Picardie.
Another wonderful day, topped by the BEST dinner at L'Envie on the quai! (I have lots more photos of the food, but have decided to restrict the number of food and bev photos to a minimum for this blog)
Our town of Gueudecourt was in the heart of the Circuit de Souvenir, the remembrance route of the Battle of the Somme. Around the corner from our B&B was a WWI memorial (there's at least one in every town we've ever visited in France), topped with a poilu - is he reaching for the heavens? He is just a boy. Another reminder of how young many of the casualties were.
Jeff, John, and I walked to an AIF (Australian) cemetery nearby. It contains over 3,000 graves of Commonwealth, French, AND a few German soldiers.
Nearby, a cluster of poppies.
In hindsight, I think this was the hardest day of remembrance in our travels. By the time the four of us got into the car, our hearts were already filled with sorrow. More to come.
We spent some time in the Historiale de la Grande Guerre in Peronne, learning more about the Great War. Lots of school groups in attendance, too.
As we drove on towards Thiepval, we stopped at ADANAC, another Canadian cemetery. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) workers were in the process of restoring the headstones. They informed us that the headstones are touched up every 50 years. The grounds of all the cemeteries are always pristine. Speaking of the CWGC, we have (unfortunately) visited their sites in many places - Hong Kong, Yangon, France, and even Toronto's Prospect Cemetery.
The Thiepval Memorial commemorates over 70,000 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battle of the Somme. The monument was designed by the famous British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens. Nearby, we stopped to admire the Ulster Tower, commemorating the men from Northern Ireland who served in WWI. Needing a break before Beaumont-Hamel, we stopped for lunch at a British tea room, which caters to the thousands of British visitors passing through this area each year.
Beaumont-Hamel is devastating. 780 soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment went "over the top" on July 1, 1916, and were wiped out in 20 minutes! 80% dead or wounded. I can't even begin to fathom the effect on the small, close-knit population of the Dominion of Newfoundland. I recall the look on John's face as we walked through No Man's Land, where they fell (and where sheep now quietly graze). Normally a pretty calm, cool character, his face betrayed his extreme sadness as well as his anger. 
What a day! Our next stop was the Lochnagar Crater. The British mine that left this enormous hole exploded about an hour before the Newfoundland Regiment's disaster. We in Canada celebrate July 1st as our joyous national day. Many Newfoundlanders still mark it as a day of remembrance.Since our trip to France, I try to remember that July 1, 1916, marked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. More than three million men fought in this 4-1/2 month battle, and one million were either killed or wounded.
We stopped in Albert, a town that was devastated during the War, and, according to websites, rebuilt in the '20s in the Art Deco style. We didn't find any evidence of Art Deco - in fact, it resembled many of the other towns that we drove through on the Circuit de Souvenir.
Jeff's itinerary gave us a break from the War the following day. We toured the Château de Pierrefonds, begun in the 12th century, but for the most part, totally rebuilt in the mid-19th century by Viollet-le-Duc, a French architect who specialized in restoring (demolishing and rebuilding) medieval buildings.
Although we did have a break from the Great War, we wouldn't have wanted to miss the superb Musée de la résistance et de la déportation in Tergnier. It had a very personal touch to it. Many of the objects on display were donated by local families after WWII.
The four of us checked out of our gîte in the morning, and split our travels, meeting later that day at our lodgings in Bailleul.
The first stop for Jeff and me was Aire-sur-la-Lys, where we followed a self-guided walking tour through this pretty Flemish Renaissance town. Main square, bell tower, flowers. Spotting a pharmacy, I dashed in and found my favourite Roger Gallet lavender-scented soap. I was a happy camper!
We hung around the town until noon when the chip wagon opened. What a feast! Our car smelled like frites for days!
We continued our walk in St. Omer. The town hall in the main square is constructed with stone from the ruined St. Bertin Abbey (below). We walked by the cathedral, and crossed the river Aa, via the tunnel, to the public gardens on the other side. I noticed the marking on some of the trees signifying that we were on the "compostelle", one of the pilgrims' routes to Santiago in Spain.
The very cool ruins of St. Bertin Abbey (9th-12th c.) lie just outside St. Omer. The Abbey was closed during the French Revolution, and was destroyed by the Commune (July Revolution) in 1830. Not a place to wander at night.
When we arrived at Côté Cour (donkeys and horses!), a few minutes after Susan and John, we found out that our hostess, Virginie, had left the key with a neighbour because she had to dash to the hospital: her daughter was having a baby just then! We toasted the new arrival (a boy) later that evening. Another good dinner (there really isn't a bad one in France) at Auberge du Cheval Blanc.
We were now situated on the France/Belgium border. There aren't many signs indicating which country you're in as you drive along the roads, especially with the EU borderless crossings, however we realized we were in Belgium when the signs changed from French to Flemish. We stopped at the Yser Tower and Peace Gate (symbols of Flemish nationalism) in Diksmuide, and then the Trench of Death, a stretch of the Western Front that now serves as a symbol of Belgium's heroism.
On our way to Passchendaele, we stopped at the Langemark German war cemetery (built on the site of the first gas attack), maintained by the German War Graves Commission. The cemetery was closed due to an upcoming event, but we managed to take some photos from the sidewalk. There are mass graves containing tens of thousands of soldiers who died in the First Battle of Ypres. I know I'm not alone in saying that I often forget or ignore the enemy casualties in the Great War. Mostly very young men.
Passchendaele. Hard to picture the horror of the battle in the fall of 1917. Over 15,000 Canadian casualties. The Canadian Memorial sits at the site of Crest Farm. Looking down the road, you can see the rebuilt church and now peaceful village. A sobering moment of reflection.
Tyne Cot Cemetery. The largest cemetery in the world for Commonwealth forces. The architects of the cemetery left several German pillboxes (photo on left) on the grounds. The names of 35,000 missing soldiers are inscribed on the walls. (When the CWGC ran out of room on the Menin Gate, they continued the list at Tyne Cot) While visitors walk through the small museum and proceed to the cemetery, a voice recites the names of the missing.
To put some of this staggering information into perspective, we visited the Memorial Museum Passchendaele. I was overwhelmed by the exhibit entitled Falls the Shadow by New Zealand artist Helen Pollock.
And then we all lost it. St Julien. The Brooding Soldier. The monument sits in a small park in the middle of a busy roundabout. It is so tragic. And so Canadian. We felt proud, but humble, and so very thankful to our heroic soldiers.
We ended our trip of remembrance that evening in Ypres. Unfortunately, the In Flanders Fields Museum was closed by the time we arrived, but we did manage to visit St. George's Memorial Church. This chapel was built after the War, as a place of refuge for British family members searching for the graves of their loved ones. The church has many plaques and memorials to regiments, associations, and individuals.
The Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate was as almost as emotional for me as my visit to Auschwitz. There has been a ceremony at 8 pm every day since July 2, 1928 (the ceremony was held in England during the German occupation of WWII). We stood in silence as the buglers played, looking up at the names of 55,000 missing Commonwealth soldiers. One of the speakers that evening was the director of the German War Graves Commission. He was truly overcome as he voiced his message of peace.Our WWI journey came to a fitting end that night. Time to digest all that we saw and learned, and to move on to the next phase of our trip.
We spent our last day with Sue and John in Lille. Sue hightailed it to Galeries Lafayette for some retail therapy. John went off to see some sites, and Jeff and I followed a self-guided walk courtesy of a tourist office map. Impressive Flemish buildings, beautifully kept. Very interesting art. As is typical in France, when you are hungry, there's always an excellent meal waiting for you nearby. This particular day it was crèpes (followed by dessert, of course) at La Crêperie!
The Jewish graves were all together (as were the Germans), and there was also a Chinese section where 30 men of the Chinese Labour Corps were buried.
We had quite an adventure that evening ... Sue made a reservation at T'Hoffel, and off we went, guided by our old GPS. Jeff drove in the pitch black, up and down very narrow two-way country roads, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. No signs, no lights, no people. Just as we were about to give up (us? are you kidding??), Jeff noticed a light at the top of a high hill. T'Hoffel!! The owner/barman/waiter/cook (i.e. the same guy) greeted us warmly, we relaxed, and had a wonderful meal, toasting our successful trip.
Jeff and I bade farewell to Susan and John early the next morning. We left the car at Hertz in one of the two Lille train stations. We literally ran back and forth between the two stations (about 15 min. walk), trying to find the platform for our train to Bruges. Of course the local train personnel were on strike that day! We witnessed some very distraught passengers. However, we were in luck, since the trains to Belgium were still operating, and off we went to Bruges.
Yes, Bruges is very touristy, commercial, and crowded, but it sure is beautiful!! We stayed at Boat-Hotel de Barge, right near the Red Bridge. We walked our feet off.
Waffles, Halloween chocolate, chocolate shoes.
The Madonna of Bruges. The only sculpture by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime. Truly exquisite High Renaissance (early 16th c.) - notice how special it is compared to the statues surrounding it. The film The Monuments Men tells the story of the theft of the Madonna by the Germans in 1944, and its discovery a year later in a salt mine in Austria.
A plate of moules frîtes capped a busy day.
An animal market.
The Van Eyck brothers, the artists who created the Ghent Altarpiece in St. Bavo's Cathedral (a MUST see; no photos allowed).
City Hall and the Belfry.
The canal.
The ruins of St. Bavo's Abbey.
A delightful day, which also included two meals al fresco (dinner at De Graslei with heat lamps)!
And on to rather dirty Brussels. A bit of a mixup with our accommodations - they were going to give us an apartment on the fourth floor of a walkup. We feigned old age, and wound up in an ok-ish flat in a crummy old building. When will we ever learn that we really have to spend more for hotels in big cities?
More walking - the fabulous Grande Place! A WOW moment (except for the multitude of gypsy beggars - we kept our valuables well-hidden). Lunch at a friterie, of course.
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| Pilgrims Church |
The next morning, we followed a free walking tour for a while before meeting our HK besties, Joan and Ron, who took the Eurostar from London to meet us for a few days.
Joyful reunion!!
After lunch, we walked up the hill, past museums and the royal palace, to the belvedere near the Palais de Justice. We roamed around Sablon, an upscale neighbourhood filled with cafés, antique shops, and chocolate shops. Coffee and chocolate at Wittamer, followed by a look around the Notre Dame Church. A civilized glass of wine at Cave des Vins, followed by dinner at Les petits onions. 
Poor Joan and Ron - we shlepped them to Waterloo (200th anniversary) to continue the Dale and Jeff war history vacation (in the cold drizzle). After a walk through the Duke of Wellington Museum, we hopped on the bus to Lion Hill, site of Napoleon's last battle. The museum was rather tacky. The highlight of the visit (pardon the pun) was the climb up the victory hill to rub the Lion, symbol of England's supreme victory! We salvaged the day with a good meal at Fin de Siècle, the sister restaurant to 9 et Voisins.Coffee and hugs goodbye the following morning, then off to the airport. Icelandair to ice cold Reykjavik. In my opinion, aside from an interesting day in ultra-expensive Reykjavik, Iceland did not live up to the hype. It seems to have become the "cool" place to visit, but I found it bleak and overrated.
This is what I liked:
The Hallgrimskirkja (took 40 years to build) and the statue of Leif Eriksson in front of it (I was wearing everything in my suitcase)
The wetland near the university.
The national museum.
Harpa - the national concert hall. Five stars!! We were lucky to get tickets to the opera, the Barber of Seville, on our second night. The interior staircase is like a piano keyboard.
Water and interesting sculptures.
The Sun Voyager.
Trolls!
City Hall (left) and original Icelandic houses.
Our favourite restaurant: Saegreifinn. Moderately priced, fresh, tasty. Best chowder I've ever had.
What we learned:
Hot tap water is sulphuric (geothermal). Cold water is pure spring.
"Icelandic" sweaters - unless the label specifically says "made in Iceland" (we saw very few), they are most likely made in China. Prices are outrageous.
The Icelandic language is not at all like modern Norwegian or Danish. It derives from Old Norse. In our experience, not very many Icelanders are fluent in English.
What we didn't enjoy:
The Gray Line Golden Circle Tour.
It was raining. And VERY windy. And cold. Perhaps that clouded my enjoyment somewhat. (ed: ya think?)
Notwithstanding the weather, the tour was bleak and boring, except for Thingvellir National Park, where the first general assembly took place in 930 CE, and where it continued until 1738. It was very interesting to see the geological fissure zone running through the park.
The waterfalls were underwhelming, as were the geysers. And to top off an endless day, the bus added an attraction (for an optional supplemental fee) - a horse farm! Shame on Iceland tourism - they can certainly do better.
Aside from the disappointment of Iceland, the trip was incredible. We certainly packed in an enormous amount of travel and education in a mere three weeks. Par for Dale and Jeff!
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