Today was an early rise to catch the start time to go to the Somme River area north west of Paris, this area saw heavy fighting during World War 1 and has strong Australian connections with place names such as Villers Bretonneux, Le Hamel, Poziers and more. Uncle Frank was in the 5th Battalion, 1st Division AIF and served here and in Belgium during 1917 and 1918, he was one of the fortunate ones to come home.
Poppies on the battlefield, le Hamel
One outstanding feature of the war grave sites was how peaceful they are now, in bright sunlight all you could hear was the rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds and the very faint sound of the high altitude passenger jets leaving their criss-cross of contrail plumes against the blue skies. It is so difficult to imagine the carnage and destruction of those war years, the suffering of all the soldiers.
War graves at Adelaide Cemetery at Villers Bretonneux
Plaque dedicating the school at Villers Bretonneux, the Australian war dead are still honoured by the locals
War graves at Australian War Memorial at Villers Bretonneux
Cross at the Australian War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux
The First Australian Division Memorial, Pozières
Tour guide was OK but spent a lot of time reading from brochures and wasn’t quite up to scratch history wise from an Aussies perspective. Whilst we were there we saw another tour called “Cobbers Battlefield Tours” covered in Aussie flags, if anyone plans to do the trip look this guy up. The Australian involvement here is much too important not too know.
French country side is just beautiful, lovely quiet little villages.
Ended the night with a dinner at the hotel restaurant then a walk to a bridge just to soak in the sight of the Eiffel Tower under lights and enjoy the lovely summer night. Perfect.
Beautiful photo!!!
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