The Palace of Versailles

We went for a picnic and explore at Versailles which is about 40 mins from where we are staying.  It was a cold but sunny day, we had a picnic of baguette meat and cheese followed by coffee/chocolate and waffles smothered in nutella - can't beat france in winter!!

We walked all through the gardens and down to the lake before heading back to the chateaux for a tour inside.  Its amazing but the gardens here are free, so you can come and picnic and wander through the gardens whenever you like at no charge, the kids just love it.  To visit inside kids are free and adults are 15 euros, it really is a value for money day.  My only suggestion would be consider coming by train from Paris as to park the car is ridiculously expensive - it cost us 15 euros to park for about 4-5 hours!!

Versailles is amazing, to walk the staircases and know that once Marie Antoinette also walked the same stairs is really quite awe inspiring.  The luxury is quite astounding.  However, the commentary indicates that the picture history has painted of Louis as selfish and unaware of the people may be a stretch.  He was the first person in France to introduce workers compensation for the tradespeople working on the Chateaux and often had soirees where he through the doors open to people in the village to come and enjoy the beauty of the Palace as it was built as much for them as for him he said.  An interesting study in the power of propaganda perhaps?

All in all it was a fascinating day and even thought the kids have been before, 8 and 10 is a good age to actually benefit from the history of the place.  I would strongly recommend a visit and its well worth touring the inside of the Palace - the room of mirrors is also fascinating for its role in history - it was where the Treaty of Versailles marking the end of WWI was signed - it was a good way for us to connect the dots with the kids after the Somme.

 

Monkey Magic!

About 40-45 kms south of Strasbourg is a monkey park called Monkey Mountain (actually Montagne des Singes).  It houses monkeys from North Africa that are endangered, it breeds monkeys to release into the wild as well as housing some monkeys in its tourist attraction which presumable pays for the rehabilitation work.

The park is free range.  The monkeys just roam around the park and approach visitors at will.  You are given a handful of specially prepared pop corn which you can ho;d in your hand and the monkeys will come and eat it from you.  Its really magic for the children because they get up close with monkeys of all sizes including the young ones.

The park also has a great educational program, they show kids what monkeys eat, who their predators are (including humans) and what needs to be done to keep them safe.

Our kids loved it, it was a fairly inexpensive excursion too.  there is a park area, a playground and a cafeteria and restaurant there as well.  You are welcome to take picnics.  If you are ever in the area its well worth a visit especially with kids.

Lille and Lily, and the Amiens

We just had to visit the city of Lille for our Lily (also called lil).  It is actually quite a cool city. It seems to have survived remarkably intact given the devastation to many cities and towns around it from 2 world wars.  Many old pre war building are still intact and the city has a good pedestrian vibe to it.  We got a few pics of Lil in front of strategic signs, and basically just went for a wander.
We were sorry not to get to the Belgian border - this was as close as we got - really a stones throw but not quite there.
The city was also preparing for christmas with lights and decorations going up and the shop windows decorated, it was nice.

On the way back from the Somme to our friends' place west of Paris, we stopped in Amiens.  We had heard a lot about it and were expecting a lot, especially given  that Lille had survived so well.  Sadly, it was a bit disappointing. It is an architectural mishmash, with some buildings surviving the war, some beautiful art deco 20s buildings and some downright ugly post WWII buildings - sadly these seemed to be the majority.
However, it was a friendly city, well laid out for pedestrians with a young feel due to the number of University students.
The Cathedral notre dame is exceptional.  Absolutely beautiful and awe inspiring with lovely monuments to the war mixed in amongst the religious monuments.
We also found an Australian Bar which unfortunately was closed  but we got a pic anyway!

Canadian and British sites in the Somme and Fromelles

We are staying very close to the Canadian memorial at Beaumont-Hammel - its a fantastic memorial, they have preserved a lot of the trenches and have marked out where the german front line was, you can literally stand in the trench and look over no mans land to the german front line.  Its absolutely freezing, its foggy and misty and eerie and damp and muddy. You can imagine how scared some of the young boys were in those trenches.  you can see the mortar holes all around the trenches.  its bleak and frightening and really very sobering.  its the first place that the closeness of the two front lines in this area was brought home to me.

After beaumont-Hammel we visited the British monument to the lost soldiers of the Somme.  Its a magnificent and imposing monument and its very sad seeing the number of graves for people who were missing and not found.  It is located in a hauntingly beautiful grove of trees in Thiepval, its hard to imagine that it was the scene of such a disastrous loss of young life.  Just down the road is the Ulster Tower - a memorial to the Northern Irish troops.  Anywhere else it would look like a fairy tale castle, here amongst the mud and the mist its a much more sobering experience.

Today we went to Fromelles to visit the Australian memorial there which was built to commemorate the 250 bodies found at Pheasant Wood this century.  A huge amount of work has been done to identify as many of the soldiers as possible and it is an absolute credit to those involved.  Reading the heartbreaking personal comments on the headstones by family members demonstrates how much the identification of their previously loved ones means to them.  This is probably the place where the toll of the devastation finally hit me.  It seemed more personal, and all the dates of death were the same 2 days.  I found a gravestone for a young man who had come from Colebrook a town not to far away from where I live, chances are I know one of his ancestors.  But the last straw for me as I walked around the site holding my little 8 year old angel's hand was seeing a headstone for a 16 year old.  I just lost it and burt into tears at the waste and the pain that must have been felt by that mother and the hope that she was still alive to see him laid to rest properly.

We walked to the area marked as Pheasant Wood, the mud was thick and it was wet and slippery and desolate.  The wood itself though was incongruously beautiful with its Autumn colours on full display.  Al around the outskirts of the town the wild red poppies are in bloom, growing through the cracks just as the famous poem suggest. Its hard to believe such horror took place here.

In Fromelles the school has an Australian flavour, its named Cobbers, and its emblem is a kangaroo with a kangaroo weather vane - its a nice touch.

This has been a wonderfully moving experience and I am so glad we did it. I knew from visiting Normandy a few years ago that it would be moving but I wasnt expecting the surge of national pride I felt so far from home.  Nothing however, has been able to shake the anger and overwhelming sadness at the futility of war and the huge cost so many countries and families paid in a war that decimated a whole generation across a dozen nations.

If you are ever in France and have a spare few days, do come here and visit these sights its an experience that will stay with you a long time.  Perhaps if enough of us experience this, we can help prevent further wars.

a trench at Beauont-Hammel

from the trench looking over no mans land to the german front line

the Caribou - Canadian monument

British monument at Thiepval

Thiepval

the Ulster Tower

the beautiful church at Albert

Fromelles

the kids laying a poppy on behalf of their pop at Fromelles

my angels

a wall decoration next to the school at Fromelles with drawings of Australia by local kids

the mud looking toward Pheasant Wood

the school with the Kangaroo weather vane

Remembrance Day in the Somme

Today we went to Pozieres for the Remembrance Day service at 11.00.  They had 2 services, the first at the French memorial then all the attendees led by the Mayor, walked the 400-500 metres up a lane to the Australian memorial for a second service and wreath laying.  The French in these parts take the Australian contribution to WWI very seriously and it was something to be very proud of.  Near the Australian memorial there is a preserved trench site which clearly shows the remains of trenches.

the remains of a trench at Pozieres

Australian Memorial Pozieres

Australian Memorial Pozieres

We then moved on to Villers-Brettoneux to visit the war memorial there and the town itself.  The memorial is just out of the town and we climbed the 315 concrete steps to the top to look towards the townships which were so badly damaged in the war.  It is an interesting area because unlike the rest of France, so many of the houses and buildings are relatively new, having been built post 1920 or even post 1950.  Villers-Brettoneux was basically destroyed in WWI and then further damaged in WWII - even the memorial suffered shrapnel damage in WWII.  

In the town itself, we visited the museum which is based around the involvement of Australian troops in the war.  It is above the school which was built by donations made by Victorian schoolchildren after the war.  The town is clearly very appreciative of the Australian troops which liberated it from the Germans. 

Visiting the area evoked a strange feeling of pride mixed with incredible sadness at the futility and the sheer scale of it all.  Answering the really sensible questions from an 8 and 10 year old about how war happens and why is really difficult and they just have that knack of stating the bleeding obvious and making you feel that all adults are just total idiots!! Driving between towns alongside the flat unforgiving fields makes you wonder how in the hell anyone thought a war could be fought here let alone in these weather conditions!

this is the sign over the playground at the school

the kids getting patriotic

artefacts recovered from the war

the plaque at the school commemorating the Victorians school children

from the top of the war memorial

the memorial at Villers-Brettoneux