21 to 25 April - On tour with the Pagetts

---

We began our tour with the Pagetts by backtracking over some of the ground we'd covered in the previous trip north to the coast. Our goal on day one was to get ourselves some where close to Bayeux where we were due to meet our guide for next days tour of the American battlefield sites of World War 2. The day began grimly as we got lost getting out of Argenton. I think it was due to a rushed morning packing. Thats what I'm blaming anyway and certainly not my tardiness in studying maps for the route north. Anyway we finally straightened things out and headed in the right direction, the Pagetts with Ellen in a hired camper van and Gina and I in the citreon. As we travelled along the motorways, we christened our car Le Petit Pois - the little green pea - for its distinctive colour which made it easy to spot on the highway. All the same we managed to get lost once again - I think around Le Mans - this time it was a combination of us using maps and Ash using a GPS.

We headed for Mont St Michel, a rocky tidal island cropped by a massive fortified abbey. It is a staggering site, visible for kms away as you make the approach across the tidal flats of Normandy. After a brief stop to oggle from a distance (time was getting short and the wind was once again biting us) we headed inland in the direction of Bayeux. It was dark before we located a campground called Les Puits for our overnight stay - Ellen and the Pagetts in the camper van and Gina and I in a room in the farmhouse office. After settling we headed out to find a feed which we did in a small town called Torigni. God knows how we managed to find the only restaurant open in rural Normandy after 9pm.

The next day (Sunday 22 April) we met Eric Ledoux Turnbull at Bayeux railway station. Our guide for the day was a history buff who specialised in a very narrow part of the second world war which encompassed the D Day landings in 1944. He is a nuggety little Englishman, not unlike the actor Robert Carlisle, who moved to France about 8 years ago to marry a French girl and start anew with something that he is really passionate about. Whilst he runs all manner of tours, today he would take us to places that were part of the American sphere of action. He took us first to the church at St Mere Eglise. This is where some of the first action of the Normandy operation took place, where a mass of parachute troops landed with the objective of securing of disrupting and securing the land beyond the beach fronts. The church setting is where a parachutist landed and was left hanging for most of the day pretending to be dead - dramatised in the movie The Longest Day. St Mere Eglise was also the first town liberated in the invasion. Next Eric took us to Utah Beach (a yank success), then to Omaha Beach (initially a yank disaster featured in Saving Private Ryan but Eric set the record straight on that) and finished with the USA War Cemetery at Coleville-sur-Mer. Whilst Gina and I were probably only marginally interested in aspects of the second world war, Eric's ability to tell the story from the perspective of the individual soldier as well as telling us the facts made it a fascinating day. His passion for the subject was very evident (at times he got quite emotional) and the vividness certainly made an impression on Ellen, who as a youngen was short on knowledge about the war. Leanne and Ash were equally impressed. You can find plenty of gushing testaments to his guided tours on Tripadvisor.

After the tour we trekked on to the pretty seaside town of Honfleur for the evening where we enjoyed a stroll around the small harbour and finished with a feed in a small creperie.

The next day we made our way to Ypres in Belgium and stayed at the camping ground just outside of the old city. In the evening we visited Menin Gate, a memorial to soldiers of the commonwealth killed during WW1. There are something close 150,000 names enscribed on the walls of the memorial - just staggering. This evening we attended a ceremony thats been taking place every evening at 8pm since 1928 (apart from 3 years during WW2) – a quartet of local volunteer firemen doing the Last Post in tribute to soldiers of the Commonwealth. Incredibly, one of the group has been doing it for 56 years! As it was hard up against ANZAC Day there was a large crowd, particularly Australians, in attendance. We chatted to a group from Tumut High School before the ceremony. Despite the bitter cold it was a very moving event. We were certainly getting into Ash's war tour.

After a tour of the town of Ypres - a very pretty medieval town but watch out for the cats around the town square - we returned to France via some WW1 memorials and sights at Zillebach (Perth/China Cemetery), Hill 60, the Paschendale Museum at Zonebache and the British cemetery at Tyne Cot – largest british cemetery in world with just under 12,000 burials there. Interesting to see amongst the thousands of graves, the collection of small pebbles that get placed on the top headstones for soldiers of Jewish faith. At Paschendale we ran into an older brit couple who were out touring the war sites. We noticed that they wore small knitted poppies. We asked about them and were told that she knitted to raise funds for the British equivalent of Legacy. Given that it was soon to be ANZAC Day they gave us each a poppy to wear and we reciprocated by making a donation.

Late in the evening we arrived at Villers-Bretonneux, the sight of a war memorial that was to be a significant part of the ANZAC Day commerations. We spurred our original plans for accommodation out of town and stayed instead behind the Marie - the town hall. After all the driving we decide to seek out some refreshments at the Melbourne Hotel. It is a strange sight to see a bunch of French locals at a bar called the Melbourne sipping on rose and pastis. And you should see how they make scotch and coke - three quarters of the glass filled with scotch and the rest coke. Gina had to have 2. After the drink we decided to head just out of town to see the small Adelaide Cemetery. It was about 9pm and just before sunset, an eerie light was cast over the cemetery as the moon rose. Before settling in for the evening we had dinner at the most famous place in VB, a turkish place run by Monsieur Kebab. VB is a small rural town and some 5000 people were expected to be there for the dawn ceremony - most people were however staying in the nearby city of Amiens, bussing it to the ceremony in the morning. As it was a small town dining options were limited but finding Monsieur Kebab was just great. As we ate we watched a football game on TV featuring Barcelona and Chelsea with a large group of young lads. The lads were the local under 18 football team - ASVB. In a whacky tribute to aussie soldiers, ASVB feature a kangaroo as the emblem on their jerseys. And to wind the night up with a great finish, Monsieur Kebab, as one of the chief sponsors for the team, presented Ellen with an ASVB jersey.

That night we slept in the camper van behind the Marie. The camper van looked very comfortable but due to my reputed snoring, I was in self-imposed exile in Le Petit Pois. At least we knew it was possible to get a sleep in the citreon. We were up at 4am to prepare for the walk out to the dawn service however we managed to catch a shuttle bus out there. The sight of the service was a memorial set in the fields surrounding VB where some of the fiercest fighting took place. It was bitterly cold at sunrise but we watched a very moving service, televised back to Australia. Ellen and Leanne placed a few sprays of a wreath at the memorial after the service and we warmed ourselves with croissants and coffee that was on offer to the large crowd. After the service we had a very cold walk back into town followed by a breakfast in the Pagett’s van. I tried to offer Calvados to the posse of Gendarmes near our van, there to guard the ANZAC Day dignitaries. But showing their true professionalism they refused my offer waving me off with a shake of the head. Later they did accept a bag of beers, probably because I had concealed the contents in some plastic bags.

After breakfast it was time for goodbyes. The Pagetts were off to return the camper to Paris and make their way back to England for eventual return to Australia. Gina, Ellen and I decided we would return to Belgium to check out Brugge. Thank you Leanne and Ash for a great week.

---

Photos

Ypres
At Poppy's restaurant Ypres

Paschendale
A Brit lady who knits woolen poppies to raise funds for Legacy gave us some of her work to wear at VB

Adelaide Cemetery
Outside VB

Monsieur Kebab
Presenting the ASVB shirt to Ellen. Notice Monsieur Kebab's Wallabies scarf.

ANZAC Memorial
Outside Villers-Bretonneux

ANZAC Day
Feasting on croissants and coffee after the service - it was cold

Comments

[Joanna Holt]

What a journey!
Dear Author(s) Wow have I enjoyed going on this journey with you - I presume that PJK Tours will arise from this literary masterpiece like a Phoenix from the ashes of a public service career! I have only just worked out how to comment on this blog (being technologically challenged and not scrolling down far enough!!) but I would have choked on the bollus of green envy stuck in my throat if I had before! So now I can just say - can't wait for you to get home and be invited to the 'slide night' accompanied by smelly cheeses and bulls testicle curry...uhmmm on second thoughts, scratch the last! Lots of love and see you soon (well at least Gina!) Jo and Co. xxxx