WARNING: This post contains images some people may find offensive! Continue to read at your peril!

Well, what a busy time we have had. We welcomed Wayne and Kaye to our “establishment” in Arras and haven’t stopped!

The day before they arrived however we spent a lovely day discovering the lovely city of Lille. It was a Sunday so although the shops were shut , it was fairly quiet and nice to wander around.

The Main Square , The Grand Place was massive but the most impressive building on it was the “Vielle Bourse” , the old Stock Exchange , built in 1652.

It consists of 24 Flemish Renaissance houses formed around a central Courtyard which becomes a book market on Sundays.

 

 

 

The Opera House was a lovely building and the Place aux Oignons  had no onions but some very pretty 17th and 18th Century buildings.

 

 

The North and South Gates of the old city were quite nice. The South Gate , the Porte de Paris (below) was built in the 17th century to commemorate the capture of the city by Louis XVI.

 

The North Gate, Porte de Grand was at the end of a lovely cobblestoned street where we found a fabulous restaurant for a great lunch!

 

 

We both had a delicious Duck Confit , and both the duck and the duck fat potatoes were great. The Crème Brulee however was sadly not up to Greg’s standards!

 

Our first full days outing with Wayne and Kaye was a fabulous day with Sacred Ground Tours doing a Fromelles – Ypres Battlefields Day Tour. Our first stop was at the Fromelles Pheasant Wood Commonwealth War Cemetery which has 225 Australians of which 59 are unidentified. (below)

 

Nearby is the moving Cobbers Statue , (above) a memorial to Australian Servicemen who got out of the trenches and retrieved their wounded and dead mates. The Battle of Fromelles was regarded as the worst 24 hours of Australian Military history. Of the 5500 causalities there were 500 Prisoners of War and almost 2000 dead.

We stopped at Hill 60. This hill (now a crater) changed hand many times during the war. Both sides dug tunnels including the Aussies and New Zealanders, and planted mines underneath . There are still today remains of many soldiers from both sides lying here.

 

The Lines on the ground show both the British and German Front Lines both within 10 feet of each other! Amazing!

 

 

 

We stopped for lunch at Ploegsteert in Belgium at a small café /pub which has a fantastic affiliation with us Aussies!

 

Johan , the owner of the café , is a Flemish farmer who was having work done on his farm and came across the remains of 5 Australian soldiers. One of them was Jack Hunter who had been buried by his younger brother Jim.  The story is amazing and too involved to tell here but if you wish to know more go to

http://www.brothersinarmsmemorial.org

The above photo is a statue of Jim and Jack Hunter which is being made and placed at Johan’s café. He was a lovely man , and when we said goodbye his words of “Lest we Forget” bought tears to our eyes. It was a very emotional visit.

 

 

We made a donation to The Brothers In Arms Memorial, and also had a couple of Brothers In Arms beers for the Diggers!

 

 

 

 

 

We then went to the Tyne Cot Cemetery , below ,with nearly 12,000 buried soldiers and the largest Commonwealth Cemetery in the world. It also has the names of 35,000 men , never found and presumed dead.

 

Our last stop was in Ypres for dinner. The Belgium Flemish Stew was delicious and of course it was washed down with a few beers. Then it was off to the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate which occurs every evening at 8pm.

 

Between October 1914 and September 1918 hundreds of thousands of Servicemen marched through the Gate on the way to the Battlefields. The Gate bears the names of nearly 55,000 soldiers whose graves are unknown.

We had a great day , joined by another couple , Jim and Rose , also from Melbourne.

(Just checking to see if you are reading our blog guys , and we bet by now you much prefer Paris to London!!!!)

The next day we went through the Wellington Tunnels, the Memorial to the Battle of Arras. Throughout WW1 Arras was one of the few towns situated on the Front Line. There were many underground chalk quarries that had been dug in the Middle Ages.

 

In 1916, New Zealand Tunnellers linked the quarries together to get closer to the German Positions. Gathered underground in this secret place, over 24,000 soldiers emerged from the tunnel steps just a few metres from the German positions on April 9th 1917.

 

Signs are still there (Latrine) from both WW1 and WW2. It was really interesting. The only negative were the helmets we needed to wear for OHS reasons! Not a pretty sight!

 

We took an overnight trip to the Coast to one of our favourite spots , Honfleur. It was where we had a memorable “retirement lunch” for Greg 5 years ago. On the way down to Honfleur we called into the city of Amiens to check out the magnificent Cathedral. It was begun in 1220 and survived 2 world wars almost intact!

We stayed at a gorgeous B and B which had a huge room with an enormous bath!

 

 

 

Well we did warn you about offensive material !!!!!!!!!

 

 

We returned to the same restaurant for a fabulous dinner. Greg’s langoustine and Rhonda’s foie gras entrees were delicious. Our main course of Dourade with mushroom risotto was bloody good too. Rhonda’s mille feuille was sensational although Greg was a tad disappointed with his Tarte Tatin. Overall it was a great night and a great meal.

 

The next day on our way back home , we decided to go via the coast and into Normandy. Our first stop was the pretty coastal village of Etretat. We thought it was quite English and a bit like the Cornwall Coastline. It had some great rock formations and of course Greg had to put his feet into the English Channel.

 

 

 

Another good stop was Fecamp where we stumbled upon the magnificent Palace. In 1510 a Benedictine Monk and alchemist named Dom created a secret drink comprised of 27 plants and spices! Yep you have guessed it, it is the home of Dom Benedictine! He built the Palace in honour of his drink and it is still produced here today!

 

We have done lots more but enough is enough for now! Because it’s that time again!!!!

Hope you Melbournians have weathered the storms back home!

till next time

Greg and Rhonda………and ………..Wayne and Kaye!