Vimy

---

30 September 2013

On many occasions when we have been driving south from Calais on the motorway we have noticed the first world war Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge and today we took the opportunity of visiting it. As well as the memorial to 11,258 Canadians who have no known grave and died when the ridge was capture during four days of fighting in April 1917, the park contains some reconstructed trenches and communication tunnels set in land full of shell holes. The site is manned by Canadian students and we were able to have a guided tour.

Just south of Vimy is the town of Arras which was a British base during the war and was almost completely destroyed. Here we visited the war cemetery and classically colonnaded memorial to 35,928 missing troops. Close to this in the grounds of a 17^th century citadel we went to the Memorial des Fusilles commemorating over 200 resistance fighters shot there in World War 2 by the Germans.

There is a security guarded camper stop close to the town centre and we stopped there.

---