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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Day 8 - FR

Cookie says...
Time to hit the (wrong side of the) road. Le chariot was waiting at Charles de Gaulle as I wasn't interested in tangling with Paris traffic. After a few faux pas (or whatever the French call it), we were heading for Lille. I drove, Pilt interwebbed and the girls slept.

The next few days were about paying our respects to those who fought in both World Wars and the first memorial site we stopped was Fromelles. We checked into the accom in Lille and then went on to Ypres (in Belgium) for the Menin Gate.

We arrived in a wonderful town who clearly have embraced Christmas (so far the French don't seem to care for it) and we found a place for dinner which overlooked a square. Sarah was desperate for some Belgium waffles and we picked up some chocolates afterwards too.


At 8.00pm each day they hold a short service at the Menin Gate. The gate holds the names of thousands of Australians who have no grave (they even ran out of room and built another site for them) and the service has several people playing The Last Post.



Julie says...
Today we practiced doing u-turns in France. The road signage here is appalling. Fromelles was sobering, and the random trip into Belgium was cool. But the Menin Gate was amazing and the 5 gentlemen who played The Last Post on bugles in complete unison was incredible.


Sarah says...
Fromelles and Ypres were amazing - so moving. I think the scenery was also amazing but as I slept for almost the entire trip I am not entirely sure.

Also worth noting since the 2005 trip, mentioned elsewhere on this blog, Cookie's language skills have not improved. He seems to believe that speaking English with a French accent constitutes actually speaking "French". Understandably people still do not understand what he is saying and he is also getting funny looks...


Pilty says...
Today I got to add another country to my list of countries visited. Possibly the last I'll get to visit before heading home. Belgium wasn't that much different to France in fact the sign to say we crossed the border was so small we nearly missed it. As far as navigating goes, I took to it like a duck to water. Fortunately our car came with onboard GPS as we didn't even pay for it. How did people get around without before technology...

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