Our Last Gasps of France
Time was ticking on and we had a date with a ferry for the end of November. The weather was taking an autumnal turn and our visa was almost at an end.
We needed to make tracks through Brittany, into Normandy and towards Calais.
Our first stop was somewhere that we had missed on the way South, Nantes. This is a Breton city that, as a result of the vagaries of borders, isn’t actually in Brittany.
Nantes is a big city but there is an Aire in the university district which is easily connected to the centre by tram, which an added bonus of being free at the weekend.
We took a tram into the middle of town and headed through the medieval centre to the Chateau de Ducs de Bretagne which is a walled castle in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, rather than showcasing the Chateau and its history the Chateau is the site of the municipal museum of Nantes which tells the history of the city. The most interesting section was on the slave trade and Nantes central role in the French movement of African slaves to the Caribbean.
After learning about the history of Nantes we headed across town to Les Machines D’Ile which is a madcap steampunk workshop showcasing bizarrely constructed moving animals. It’s as though computers and electronics were never invented and all the exhibits are mechanical. The highlight is definitely the massive elephant which is 12 meters tall and takes people on rides around the area while blowing steam from its trunk.
After Nantes we drove northwards to the coast of Brittany to revisit the town of St Malo as we felt that we hadn’t done it justice when we were here previously.
After spending time walking around the streets and around the walls, admiring the impressive townhouses we found a small French bistro to enjoy a fantastic set lunch.
Despite St Malo being virtually destroyed in WW2 it was amazingly rebuilt over a 12 year period ending in 1960 and certainly feels as if it is the original town. The tide here has a large range and it is fascinating to watch the changing face of the town and its beaches between high and low tide, as the receding water makes the fortified islands accessible on foot.
After St Malo we revisited another town that we had enjoyed on our way south, Honfleur. Honfleur is a lovely medieval port town that is full of restaurants and art galleries. It would make a terrific destination for a weekend getaway.
The Aire here is one of the biggest in France with space for over 150 motorhomes with electric hook-ups. Since we were here previously a new electronic access gate has been put in place and the price has been increased from €12 to €14. While it had been close to full in June it was fairly sparsely populated in late November.
We decided that Honfleur would be the site of our ‘Farewell to France’ meal and we splashed out on a fantastic meal at a place called Au Petit Mareyeur. Not only did the food taste fantastic but the presentation was beautiful.
At this point we only had one week to get to Calais so we kept heading in that direction with our next stop being the town of Rouen.
Rouen is the town where Joan of Arc was executed and there is a very good museum dedicated to her rise and fall, the trial that condemned her as well as the re-trial that posthumously acquitted her. We didn’t really know much about Joan of Arc but the story of the peasant girl who persuaded the French King Charles VII that she heard the voice of God and then went on to lead armies to successful victories over the English (during the 100 year war), before being captured and burnt at the stake in 1431 (after what seems to be a fairly biased trial) is a fascinating one and really worth learning about.
The town itself is rammed with medieval buildings and is great to wander around. Near the cathedral the Christmas markets had been set up and were very busy when we went into town.
In Rouen we stayed in the Marina, a 15 minute cycle from the town centre. Almost all of this cycle was along a riverside walkway lined with pubs, clubs and restaurants which I am sure is absolutely buzzing in the summer.
We found an amazing and very posh tea shop in one of the medieval streets where we stopped for a hot chocolate and a slice of cake. Very expensive but absolutely delicious.
We also visited an offbeat museum – the ironmongery museum – which was free to go in and actually much more interesting than its title suggests. It basically features anything and everything that can be made out of iron – from keys and locks, to weapons and fine street furniture.
We really enjoyed Rouen and would definitely come back in warmer weather to enjoy the riverside.
On the way into France we had focused on the WWII cemeteries and Normandy beaches having skipped the WWI sites around the Somme. We wanted to put this right on the way back and brush up on our WWI history.
Our first stop was the WWI museum in Peronne, which is situated in a castle in the middle of town.
This taught us some facts and figures but it wasn’t until we visited the battlefields themselves that the reality and the scale of the loss of life really hit us.
The Canadian Parks Service run two fantastic visitor centres on the battlefields of the Somme, staffed by volunteer Canadian Students.
The first one we visited was Beaumont-Hamel, which was the site of intense fighting. On a drizzling and foggy day we walked around the trenches on both the allied forces and German sides of the conflict and contemplated the horrors of the battles and the horrendous loss of life on both sides.
When the allies went over the top at Beaumont-Hamel to begin the ”Big Push” of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 20,000 were killed and 38,000 were injured. Of the 800 Newfoundlanders who started the day only 68 were to survive.
We moved on from Beaumont-Hamel to the town of Arras where we had hoped to visit the WW1 tunnels that had been built by New Zealand engineers to muster troops before the “Big Push”. Unfortunately we had limited time and couldn’t get on a tour of these tunnels. This remains one to do on another trip to France.
However we did climb the bell tower of the town hall to get a view of the town and the massive Christmas market that was spread across the big squares in the town. We also visited the huge Cathedral of the town.
Our last stop before hitting Calais was the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge. This is the site of another battlefield where the allied and German trenches were only a few metres apart. They were so close that in still conditions it was possible to hear the opposition talking in their trenches.
Some of the trenches here have been restored with concrete sandbags (instead of the original ones) to show what they would really have been like in the war. There are also some underground tunnels that can be accessed on a free tour. These tunnels were used to move between trenches and as the starting point for the sappers who dug deep tunnels under enemy lines, which were then detonated to cause breaches.
Above ground the massive craters from these explosions still pockmark the land.
Also at Vimy Ridge is the massive Canadian memorial for those who died during the war.
In total 425,000 Canadians were mobilised in Europe during WW1 of which 60,661 were killed and 172,000 were wounded. These are huge numbers but overall in WW1 between 9 and 11 million military personnel were killed and between 6 and 13 million civilians. Of the military deaths, around 2/3rds were killed in battle, which marks in out from all previous wars when disease was responsible for the majority of deaths. This really was a new type of conflict the horror of which had never been seen before. I think it is important for us to visit these sites if at all possible, to reflect on this part of history and ensure that the memory of those who lost their lives is kept alive.
After leaving the Somme we completed the short drive to Calais and stayed overnight in some free parking on the harbour wall before catching a ferry first thing in the morning to head back to the UK.
This brought to a close our 6 month tour of France which we have thoroughly enjoyed. A month in the UK seeing family and friends and enjoying a traditional British Christmas beckoned before we head to the Far East to avoid winter in Europe.