June 12th – We were all up bright and early this morning to catch the Eurostar train to Lille. The most difficult part of the journey was figuring out where to leave the keys to our rental cars, given that it was early Sunday morning and the kiosk wasn’t open. It was fairly easy to go through UK exit, security and France entry all within about 20′ in the terminal building. The ride was relatively nondescript…about 10 minutes through the UK countryside, 30 minutes in the Chunnel and another 15 minutes through the French countryside. Before we knew it, we were in Lille.

The Hunters proceeded to the rental car kiosk to pick up a new car while George and I proceeded to the domestic train terminal to check on the local train from Lille to Albert. As per the schedule on-line, we had a three hour wait. We found a little Patisserie for lunch and then just sat and read our books. The city centre of Lille was very busy with soccer fans arriving for one of the first games of the Euro Cup taking place all over France.  The train turned out to be similar to our GO train – we felt quite comfortable on the one hour trip to Albert. Dave and Ron met us there and drove us back to the hotel.

By dinner time Dennis and Jenny Kernohan and George Jr had arrived, making our group complete.  We had a bit of a chat in the lounge before heading off to another local hotel for dinner. There are few restaurants in Albert and it was evidently quite difficult to find one that was open on Sunday evening.  We had a lovely dinner, but I’m sure the staff wondered about this group as we realized too late (the next morning) that our mathematicians had miscalculated the division of the bill and we had left a 30% tip!

June 13th – Given the wet weather reports for the next few days, we decided to make the trek out to the cemetery today while the forecast was just for spotty showers. We very quickly learned that there is more than one Hamel, that there is a WWI cemetery on every country road in France, and that even the guides at the war memorials may not know the directions to the cemetery you are looking for. What fun! After about 90 minutes of searching we finally found the right spot.

 

The poppy on top of the gravestone was picked along the side of the road, where they grow wild. As in England, the hedgerows aren’t cut providing for a lovely mix of wildflowers along the sides of the country lanes.

Our next stop was Vimy Ridge, with lunch in the countryside along the way. Finding anything open on a Monday is a challenge in France. But then, nothing was open on Sunday either making one wonder when the French actually work.

Vimy is the site of a WWI battle, in April 1917, in which the Canadian Expeditionary Forces were instrumental in defeating the Germans. It was the first time that all four divisions worked as a cohesive force and became a national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. The memorial was unveiled in 1936 and stands as a tribute to those who lost their life at Vimy as well as those who died in WWI but have no known grave. We were just in time to take a guided tour of the tunnels and trenches, which helped to tell the story of how the war was won in that area. I wouldn’t say any of us are war buffs, but when you are this close we felt it was an opportunity to visit some of the most important ones. The government is building a new interpretive centre at Vimy, which is scheduled to open April 2017 in time centenary.

We arrived back at the Royal Picardie, our hotel, in time for a wee rest before dinner. It was a really educational kind of day and the conversation at dinner was rich.