Blogs from Vimy, Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe

VimyC'était une expérience inoubliable, non seulement d'être à la cérémonie à la Crête de Vimy avec 23,000 personnes, mais aussi de visiter des sites de la 1ère Guerre mondiale. Partout, on s'est rappelé la souffrance et les sacrifices des Canadiens et des Canadiennes (surtout les jeunes ). Beaucoup de soldats et de personnel (tunneleurs, constructeurs, médecins, infirmières) d 'autres pays ont aussi contribué, mais on remarque que la proportion à notre population était immense. J'étais fière d'être canadienne. Si jamais vous avez la chance de visiter cette région, je recommande un tour guidé de la Carrière Wellington à Arras. Dans ces tunnels, 24,000 soldats se sont cachés pendant 7 jours, en avril 1917, avant d'attaquer les soldats allemands . Aussi vaut-il marcher dans les tranchées près de Passchendale pour avoir la sensation. On s'imagine des mois ... read more

"Left, left,left" I chant as I drive out of the industrial park from the motorcycle hire shop. Managing to ride on the proper side of the road the next thing I need to remember is roundabouts are CLOCKWISE. Met Bart at the Eurotunnel to catch the train to France. Did I forget to mention how grateful I am to Bart for allowing me to tag along on his European Motorcycle tour? There are safety in numbers when traveling by bike. A bonus is that we both have Bluetooth headsets allowing us to talk while we ride. Our first destination is Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial. Back home, you never get that sense of history. Our buildings are only a few hundred of years old and world events which help shape our country seem distant. Being here you ... read more

Today we took the train up to the northern part of France to see the Vimy Ridge memorial. During the first World War the Germans had control of the ridge and was a key position of the German line in Northern France. If the allies could capture the ridge it would expose vast territory of German held positions to allied sight and allied guns, and help give the allies a commanding view of the entire Douai Plain. Vimy Ridge was so well fortified that all previous attempts to capture it had failed. The British and French had been trying to capture the Ridge since the beginning of the war and with upwards of 150,000 casualties little progress had been made. The taking of Vimy Ridge was the first time that all 4 Canadian Corps would be ... read more

Bonjour, It took about a month of talking about it and organization, but finally the day, a beautiful sunny day at that, arrived for Teresa, Patryk, Claude, Phil, Laura and I to go to Vimy Ridge. For those of you who don’t know, Vimy Ridge was the first time during World War I that Canadian soldiers fought together and were led by Canadian commanders. We had to catch an early train (635am) because we had to arrive in Ypres by 830am in order to meet our guide from Salient Tours who would drive us to Vimy, in northern France if one is not sure, take us around the site when we are there, and then return us to Ypres so we could take the train back to Brussels. The problem with catching such an early train ... read more

Hello, Some pictures from our visit to the Canadian Memorial in Vimy, between the cities of Lens and Arras Hallo, Een paar prentjes van onze uitstap naar het Canadees gedenkteken te Vimy tussen Lens en Arras Marijke en Luc... read more