Day 10: Sunday 6 April 2014

Apologies for a bit of a gap in the blog and thanks to those who have corresponded checking that I am OK.

I have been a bit busy out and about so the blog has taken a bit of a back seat to other matters, including eating and drinking.  I have decided to make today a bit of a domestic day, already done some laundry, had a lazy lunch, downloaded photos and now catching up on the blog.  Later this afternoon I will have a bit of a walk around Amiens and buy some supplies for the ongoing journey.

The weather so far has been fantastic, warm days, coolish nights and no rain.  The weather forecast tells me that is likely to change in the coming few days, but what the heck, I am equipped for it.

On Thursday morning I checked out the hotel in Paris and caught a taxi to the Hertz depot at the Gare de Lyon.  I reckon that they have given me the oldest car in the fleet (probably due to the condition I returned the last one in).  The car is an Opel, the same as I had on the trip with Flashy, with 78,000km on the clock and a steering wobble at 130kmh (which is legal, the speed, not the wobble).

After an interesting exit from Paris, I missed having my trusty navigator on board, I drove to Amiens via Compiegne.  The armistice that ended TGW was signed in a railway carriage in a clearing in the forest at Compiegne early in the morning of 11/11/1918..  There is a memorial and a small museum including a railway carriage similar to the one the armistice was signed in there.  (Interesting story here and a bit of history for you.  The Germans used the same railway carriage in the same clearing when the French surrendered in WW2, Hitler then took the carriage to Berlin to place in the Third Reich museum.  However when it was obvious that Germany was losing WW2 he had the carriage destroyed.  Germany wasn't going to surrender in that carriage twice!).

Continued with an uneventful drive to Amiens and checked into the Mecure Hotel pretty much in the middle of the city.  Please note that I had the 1st éclair of the trip today.

Friday was my first day out and about in the field.  I drove out from Amiens in the direction of Albert & Pozieres.  Albert was the town where the British had one of their major logistic bases supporting the battle of the Somme which began on 1 July 1916.  Albert was only a few miles behind the lines and many of the Australians fighting at the front would have passed through here.  The statue of the virgin Mary on top of the church had been damaged and leaned horizontally over the town square.  Superstition had it that if she fell the war would end with whoever caused her to fall as the loser.  The Australians, with their usual lack of reverence nicknamed her Fanny, after the Olympic swimmer Fanny Durack.

Virgin Mary at Albert AKA Fanny

After lunch in Albert (croque - monsieur) I drove to Pozieres.  This was the scene of heavy fighting by the Australians and the location of the 1st Division Memorial.  (Each of the 5 Australian divisions have a memorial on the Western Front, 4 in France and 1 in Belgium).

I wanted to get to Moquet Farm (Moo Cow Farm to the Australians) where the Australians fought another major battle but was unable to do so due to road works.  These roadworks also prevented me getting to the big British memorial at Thiepval.  

Water tower on the road into Pozieres with a portrait of a digger and the rising sun badge

 One of the local guide books mentioned the South African national memorial at Delville Wood.  Delville Wood was the scene of a major battle fought by the South Africans and there is a small museum, memorial and cemetery there.  I hadn't been there before decided to have a look.  The whole area is very atmospheric as the wood is like it would have been prior to the battle.  European woods have a bit of a feeling about them and late in the afternoon with the sun setting and a bit of a chill in the air it certainly made you think about what had happened there.

South African memorial Delville Wood

Drove back into Amiens, drinks in the hotel bar.  Dinner was pizza (ordinary) and sangria (excellent) at a restaurant beside the Somme river.

On Saturday morning I was up early and on my way to Heilly Station cemetery.  Heilly is a very small village on the Ancre river.  On the afternoon of the 27th March 1918 the 40th battalion (AIF) including my grandfather marched across the bridge across the Ancre and took up positions near the railway station.  On the afternoon of 28 March the battalion took up positions to stop the Germans advancing from the town of Morlancourt towards Amiens.  In the 3 days 28, 29 and 30 March the battalion lost 46 men killed and 179 men wounded.  My grandfather was wounded on 28 March, he was 18 years old at the time.

Heilly Station Cemetery

26 of the men killed on 28 March are buried in Heilly Station cemetery and are buried all in a row next to each other.  I have been to enough of these cemeteries to not get too emotional but this one still gets to me.

After a walk of the battlefield, got some Somme mud on my boots, I drove through some pretty little Somme villages to the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Brettoneux (VB).  The memorial at VB is where the Australian government now hold the Western Front Anzac day dawn service. 

I met a couple of Australians at the memorial, a man from Phillip Island and his son from Broadford.  They had caught the train from Paris to Amiens and were only there for the day. 

View from the tower Australian National Memorial

After climbing the tower at the memorial I drove into VB and visited the small museum there.

A short drive back to Amiens and pre dinner drinks at a little bar across the road from the hotel.  I decided to go a bit upmarket for dinner and went to one of the restaurants near the cathedral.  Flashy and Clair will know where I am talking about.  After my traditional Kir Royale I had the Plat du Nord for an entrée.  This was various types of raw fish served with a salad including a raspberry and strawberries, unusual but delicious.  My main course was canard confit avec salad et frites this was accompanied by an Alsace reisling (half bottle only).

So that brings things up to date.