My apologies for abandoning the blog there for a couple of days - I was getting quite tired and one evening whilst eating dinner (at 10:30 pm) it was still 21 degrees! So I ran out of energy somewhat.
However since writing about the vineyard (Thursday) and the rugby (Saturday) we have been busy.
As I write this we are in Valenciennes - north east of Paris and about 3 hours from the Belgian border. We spent the morning in Le Quesnoy - 10 mins by train. This is the small fortified town that the NZer's liberated a few days from the armistice on 11th November. A garrison of 1500 germans were holding the town and refused to surrender. The NZer's did not want to mortar the town as there were civilians being held there and it would have destroyed the historic buildings. So early one morning Lieutenant Averill led his division up and over the ramparts and liberated the town. Fierce fighting ensued most of the day with near 100 lives lost - 63 of whom are buried in the local cemetery. The town has many streets named after NZ and a special memorial. It is a bas relief stone plaque affixed to the rampart wall near where Averill scaled it. The ground in front of the memorial is gifted to NZ and the local town see it as NZ soil. I haven't even got to the main battlefields and graveyards yet and already I feel the significance of the places.
It was easy to imagine this morning as the train went through flat fields with a little morning mist still hanging in the air, of the way the soldiers would have woken some 98 years ago. Fresh from a cold and muddy trench to poke their heads above the trench line to see barbed wire, shell holes and sometimes men moving through the mist.
We found however that our visit was cut short as no shops are open on a Monday and that included anywhere for lunch! So back to Valenciennes and off for a walk. Walking through the streets with a badly photocopied map and no idea where we were going. Many times telling the students we knew exactly where we were! We then stumbled across a quaint creperie whilst carefully avoiding mcdonalds, subway and dominos. We were ushered upstairs to a separate dining room. In a mix of hand signals, some english and some french - you can pick up the odd word here and there - we managed to order savoury crepes and then the speciality of the house - a caramel sugar crepe for dessert. The owner also popped next door to the tourism office to get us a better map, show us where the restaurant was and how to get home to the hotel! Tonight we are going to the only restaurant open - a japanese one.
Tomorrow is another big day so it was lovely to have a completely unstructured 'lazy' day.
Paris - outside the railway station Gare du Nord - Station of the North
McDonald's in Paris?
The railway station - breathtaking to look at from outside
The railway station at Valenciennes - taken from outside our hotel
Outside the gate into Le Quesnoy- taken by a very helpful french lady walking past.
The ramparts by the gate - at the time of the liberation these were not filled with water and some still aren't
The group outside the Rue All Blacks and a gateway to honour the NZer's
The NZ Memorial - the lady of liberty, soldiers climbing up and over the wall. There are NZ ferns growing below this.
The inscription on the memorial. Where you stand to view it - from the other side of the ramparts there is a balcony made of stone upon which is inscribed - From the outer most ends of the earth
Where all good children should be! It is actually a passage through one of the rampart walls.
Always an opportunity to prove your manhood!
Walking the remembrance trail - 5kms around the town.
At the creperie
However since writing about the vineyard (Thursday) and the rugby (Saturday) we have been busy.
As I write this we are in Valenciennes - north east of Paris and about 3 hours from the Belgian border. We spent the morning in Le Quesnoy - 10 mins by train. This is the small fortified town that the NZer's liberated a few days from the armistice on 11th November. A garrison of 1500 germans were holding the town and refused to surrender. The NZer's did not want to mortar the town as there were civilians being held there and it would have destroyed the historic buildings. So early one morning Lieutenant Averill led his division up and over the ramparts and liberated the town. Fierce fighting ensued most of the day with near 100 lives lost - 63 of whom are buried in the local cemetery. The town has many streets named after NZ and a special memorial. It is a bas relief stone plaque affixed to the rampart wall near where Averill scaled it. The ground in front of the memorial is gifted to NZ and the local town see it as NZ soil. I haven't even got to the main battlefields and graveyards yet and already I feel the significance of the places.
It was easy to imagine this morning as the train went through flat fields with a little morning mist still hanging in the air, of the way the soldiers would have woken some 98 years ago. Fresh from a cold and muddy trench to poke their heads above the trench line to see barbed wire, shell holes and sometimes men moving through the mist.
We found however that our visit was cut short as no shops are open on a Monday and that included anywhere for lunch! So back to Valenciennes and off for a walk. Walking through the streets with a badly photocopied map and no idea where we were going. Many times telling the students we knew exactly where we were! We then stumbled across a quaint creperie whilst carefully avoiding mcdonalds, subway and dominos. We were ushered upstairs to a separate dining room. In a mix of hand signals, some english and some french - you can pick up the odd word here and there - we managed to order savoury crepes and then the speciality of the house - a caramel sugar crepe for dessert. The owner also popped next door to the tourism office to get us a better map, show us where the restaurant was and how to get home to the hotel! Tonight we are going to the only restaurant open - a japanese one.
Tomorrow is another big day so it was lovely to have a completely unstructured 'lazy' day.
Paris - outside the railway station Gare du Nord - Station of the North
McDonald's in Paris?
The railway station - breathtaking to look at from outside
The railway station at Valenciennes - taken from outside our hotel
Outside the gate into Le Quesnoy- taken by a very helpful french lady walking past.
The ramparts by the gate - at the time of the liberation these were not filled with water and some still aren't
The group outside the Rue All Blacks and a gateway to honour the NZer's
The NZ Memorial - the lady of liberty, soldiers climbing up and over the wall. There are NZ ferns growing below this.
The inscription on the memorial. Where you stand to view it - from the other side of the ramparts there is a balcony made of stone upon which is inscribed - From the outer most ends of the earth
Where all good children should be! It is actually a passage through one of the rampart walls.
Always an opportunity to prove your manhood!
Walking the remembrance trail - 5kms around the town.
At the creperie