A dreary cold morning cannot dampen our spirits as we head
off to visit a number of memorials in the area that are extremely significant
in their own right. We have seen
and felt the Vimy experience and the kids have grown because of them. We are now off to see the memorials of
Beaumont-Hamel and Thiepval, but prior to that we are heading down under…well
not down under as you may think but pretty close. We are closing in on Wellington Quarry which was constructed
around the city of Arras and was a series of about 12 miles of tunnels that
were used to house soldiers during WWI and in WWII were used to protect the
people of Arras from the violent shelling that occurred in the area of
Arras. The kids look some cute in
their mining helmets that we have to wear in order to enter the quarry. The underground that I was referring to
is down an elevator shaft about 60 feet below the surface and is completely
amazing.
At each new area of the tunnel that we stop we are greeted
with more sounds from years past, video footage of images and the headset
translators fill in the details that we are seeing around us, and a tour guide
that is explaining everything in detail to solidify what they are learning, a
little more on the 6 foot blonde translator later on. It is a new exhibit and a very impressive one once again and
we are truly lucky to be able to fit all of this into our tour.
The kids are doing pretty well with being so far underground
and the fact that we are in constant motion probably alleviates any fear that
we are so far down. That is until
the kids start getting hit with some big drops of water from the roof of the
cavern, I can see a slight look of concern on their faces. Actually the moisture is what gives the
chalk its strength, in fact dry chalk would not be great because it is much
more brittle and easier to crack and break, so rest easy. Obviously we made it back up. The only thing that may have kept us
down was the guide, and that would only be because she did not like ME! Well I can’t say that she didn’t like
me for sure, but she certainly did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling when she told me the
questions she was asking were to be answered by the students and not by
me!!!! In my defense, my students
were not answering and I began by trying to whisper the answers in their ears
and they still would not respond.
So in order to alleviate the awkward silence I start answering the
questions, well at least until I am told not to anymore. Luckily Charlie, my wingman, takes over
and tries to kick in with some answers and is doing a great job of alleviating
the silence. After getting back
above ground to warmer climes and warmer feelings of our group, we are off and
on our way to Beaumont-Hamel.  |
| Team TOSH |
The rain has picked up and the drive is about 30 minutes
tops but unfortunately for the Gosse family we are unable to get down to the
cemetery and do a grave rubbing.
There has been a massive amount of rain in the north of Europe over the
last 2-3 weeks and the valley below the famous “Danger Tree” is a mud pit and
is inaccessible. Nonetheless, the
experience of Beaumont is almost second to none when you hear the stories of
the brave Newfoundland boys and the large number of casualties they incurred on
July 1, 1916. Which is why on July
1st in Newfoundland, prior to their joining of Canada in 1949, that
day was set aside as their Remembrance Day, and even to this day the morning of
the first in Newfoundland is widely recognized with acts of remembrance and
then they party like the rest of us on our nation’s birthday. |
| Kinkora crew |
This is my third trip to Beaumont and the stories of then
men who died here that morning in 1916, which was a part of the greater Battle
of the Somme, always strike a chord in my heart. Although the same story is generally told each time I come
here, hearing that not one street in the city of St. John’s in 1916 did not
have a lost soldier on it, after the numbers were finalized. IN fact, of the 240,000 people live in
the Dominion of NFLD at the time, 1000 men sign up to fight overseas. On the morning of July 1st,
25 minutes after the battle had begun the men left St. John’s road trench, and
15 minutes later, of the 780 that had gone over the top only 110 survived
unscathed and only 68 of those could make roll call the next morning, it works
out to an approx. casualty rate of over 80%. They had about 250 yards to advance to lower ground, in a
valley below no man’s land and they were unable to move that far. Their objective was to get to the
“Danger Tree” two and half footballs fields away and were unable to get there
because of such heavy artillery by the Germans.
 |
| Danger Tree |
The entire memorial is centered on the famous caribou of the
Newfoundland Regiment and it is simply beautiful. I am always proud to come here because I always feel that
both sets of islanders have many of the same qualities and it is truly a
beautiful place, even in the pouring rain!
 |
| Thiepval |
From the Newfoundlanders we head up the road a few kms away
to the British equivalent of Vimy, Thiepval. This monument is dedicated to the dead of the British Empire
and this memorial alone has over 77,000 names on it whose names have no known
grave. This is my 2nd
visit back to Thiepval and this time it is extra special. When I first started planning this
trip, I was building, along with a great deal of help from EF and my good
friend Mary Erskine, we were centering it around the November 11th
ceremonies, but the fact is once you get to this region there are a million
places, monuments and sites to visit and I always want to do them all. In our case it is difficult because of
the cramped event times, but we are getting to this high points and its awesome,
but I said extra special because my good friend from Kinkora, Kevin Bustard
gets to be the first in his family to visit and see the name of his great
grandfather Bustard on the memorial.
 |
| Kevin and the Royal Rifles |
We board the bus one last time and head to Paris, after
tomorrow morning we will no longer have Freck Vandenmuelen our wonderful bus
driver from the Netherlands, he has been by far the best driver I have ever had
from EF, the kids love him. He is
the first driver I have ever had that accompanies the kids on all the exhibits
and dinners and he seriously looks out for them while we are walking to and
from the bus. Another set of eyes
is always helpful, even with this group of kids, and throw in the fact that the
kids want him to come makes it all the better. We have about 2 hours plus to Paris in a fairly heavy rain,
so sleep is in order for myself and many of the kids. Paris will be a great experience for the kids, but will mean
a little more vigilance with their belongings and being attentive to travelling
by the metro and subway, but I think they are up for it even in their tired
state.
Upon arriving into the city of Paris, I notice that Scott
has taken 789,998,987,000,765,999 pictures to this point. They include an Ikea on the outskirts
of the city, a toll station outside of the city from both sides of the bus,
Staples headquarters outside of the city, grass, water, pavement, etc. Olive I pity your 27 straight evenings
of slide shows at home!!! Haha
After dropping our bags, we hit the ground running,
literally to catch the train into the heart of the city and for our supper and
eventually a night, albeit a rainy one up on Mont Matre. I will sign off for now because Kevin
is sawing 9 cords of wood beside me and I need to affix some sort of
contraption to my head so that I can sleep. My device of my noise/snore cancelling headphones has fallen
through because I discovered on the first flight that my expensive headphones were
broken in their case, will need to investigate when I get home, so I do the
best I can to get some sleep, but Paul Bunyan, who is about 2 feet from me
prevents a full nights rest!!! Haha
at least he is a great daytime travelling companion!!! Take care everyone and I hope that you
are enjoying our stories. It is
fun writing them and the kids all enjoying reading them as well….in fact this morning
at breakfast I was in bad stead because I had not posted before I went to
bed. They had nothing to read in
the morning! Tomorrow will be
spent at the Louvre and touring the city of Love as Charlie, my budding
stallion had put it. Actually I
have referred to him more of an Acadian miniature pony so far because he
has been shot down by so many European girls at this point. Sorry Jo, but with a little coaching
yesterday and today he has finally made some inroads and has gotten some responses
as we meet different groups from around the world. I will update further to see how his equine status changes
tomorrow….but for now we will leave him at miniature pony status but I do need
to give him A+ for effort!!! Take
care and chat tomorrow!!!
dc
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