It’s Tuesday – it must be Belgium!
We found it very expensive there, and were therefore rather restrained in eating out – not sampling local specialities, and on one occasion walking out of a restaurant when we saw the price of wine. It was in Bastogne that we began what became a week’s worth of war-related excursions, often surrounded by other Brits. There are several “museums” that are actually mostly selling artefacts, but the genuine one in an old convent is fascinating and we spent a couple of hours there. It includes video testimony from a range of people who were 19 years old in 1945 and experienced the Battle of the Bulge as combatants and civilians. There are also full size reconstructions of bombarded buildings, and a section of the forest – complete with gun smoke and loud explosions. We were interested in the real denouncement letters on display – particularly in the light of a conversation with Rainer about the culture of informing in Germany.
Later, in sunny weather we drove to La Roche en Ardennes, which is a beautiful town sitting in a river gorge, and next day drove to Amiens. (We were impressed by this poster, having suffered the canine deposits which blight Canarian life!)
The weather had broken overnight with dramatic thunder and lightning, so this was a fairly long day with heavy spray on the busy motorways. We had been researching campsites in the area with mobile homes, but at the one we went to on the Amiens ring road there was no room at the inn. We therefore did yet another night in a Premiere Classe with a meal at the Campanile, and used the free Wi-Fi to send emails to three other campsites to enquire about availability. The one that got in first was La Gandspette in Eperleques near St Omer. We drove up there on minor roads, passing through the battlefields of World War 1, and visiting some British and Commonwealth cemeteries. We passed near Thiepval and made a note to return. We had some trouble finding the campsite, but it was worth it:- spacious and in the grounds of a chateau, and the mobile home was well-equipped and warm! (It was very cold and miserable weather!) Clientele was almost entirely British (with a few Dutch).
From there we made excursions by car. First we went back to Thiepval, and visited both the excellent museum and the impressive monument to the missing. It was built after the First World War near the frontline of battles of the Somme, and lists all those declared missing. 300 unidentified British and 300 French are also sumbolically buried there. On our way there we had passed serious cyclists - first a few and then many more! It transpired that they were part of a "Big Battlefield Tour" in aid of the charity Help for Heroes. This was their lunch-time stop, so the car park held hundreds of bikes, and many supporting vehicles. Their tour had started in Portsmouth and would end in Dunkirk for the 70th anniversary of the evacuation. During our visit a service was held with a Scots bagpiper and visiting military dignitaries.
Later we toured round the area and - as a contrast to the many British and Commonwealth cemetries we saw the German one in
Fricourt- a very chilling place where thousands are buried in three mass graves. (The Red Baron, Richthofen, had also been there until moved). It is carefully maintained - but without State help.
Near our campsite we saw signs to the
"Blockhouse" at Eperleques, and on the Sunday we shelled out a high entry fee to go round it, but it was worth it! It is where early work on the V2 rockets took place, having been constructed with forced labour, until it was bombed by the RAF, arguably changing the entire course of the Second World War. The story is relayed by either an excellent bilingual guide or from multilingual listening posts around the site. Outside there is a launching ramp for the V1, a huge bomb crater and a train carriage used to transport prisoners.
On our last day - en route to Dunkerque - we visted Wormhout, where an
atrocity of 1940 took place involving the shooting by the SS of a group of surrenderung soldiers in a barn. (Germany refused to prosecute the commanding officer!) The site has been only recently restored and a new memorial erected.
There was a bitter wind and regular rain all day. We went early to our Premiere Classe and kept warm. That evening we had our last French meal at the neighbouring Campanile, and in the car park were two WW2 vehicle, including a staff Humber, which were presumably going back to UK after the Dunkirk commemorations.
We were up early to catch the 8am ferry (cheaper!) to Dover, and had a very smooth crossing, enhanced by the free WiFi unknowingly furnished by a Danish trucking company!
