A very sobering trip through the battlefields of the Somme (France) and up to Cambrai where the first tank battle took place, then onto Ypres (Belgium) and the Menin Gate.
An extraordinary journey through quiet French towns harbouring cemetery upon cemetery and memorial upon memorial. Strolls through preserved trenches at Vimy Ridge and Beaumont Hamel with the snow falling all around and shocked by the craters at the Somme and Passchendaele, some 30 metres deep. Just a few of the memories that made this trip so amazing and thought provoking.
Now, the Chateaux in Cambrai was superb with the restaurant sunken into the brick wine cellar. An incredible gourmet dinner was served with traditional French detail and flavours. The second night however was quite different: as we travelled on the Woolfy “Hunt for a Mussels Restaurant” tour, we ended up, until the early hours, drinking strawberry beers with the locals in a lovely cosy ale house at the back of the cathedral in Ypres.
JB
