Mesdames et Messieurs Bonjour de la France
A big hello to you all from France and hoping that things are all going well for you.
After leaving Italy, we had a 7.5 hour trip via Switzerland to get to Paris which was a far less eventful trip than the previous train trip we had. Never the less, the lack of excitement was more than compensated by the scenery. We got to see those awesome Swiss Alps again before getting into Zurich, then onto the open country side as we made our way across the Swiss border into the gently rolling hills of France with it’s lovely villages, farming countryside and wooded copses. We were met at Gare de Lyon (railway station) by Phil’s sister & brother-in-law Ann-Marie and Jean-Daniel (JD) who took us to their new house in the leafy outer Parisian suburb of Mandre Les Roses.
This was a week for Philomena to catch up with family she had not seen for the past couple of years and there was plenty of that later in the week. But our 1st day was spent doing the mountain of paperwork associated with insurance claims from last weeks little mishap, but seeing as it was raining most of the day it was a good day to get that out of the way.
The following day cleared up a bit and JD tours took us on tour of the northern French battlefields of World War 1, in particular, the Somme area where the Australian and British memorials to this unbelievably, tragic and shameful event of human history are located.
The beautiful French rural countryside, dotted with gorgeous villages with names like Poitiers, Hamel, Villers-Bretonneux, Albert and Saint Quentin belie the mass slaughter that took place here in 1916 and again in 1918. However, over 250 war cemeteries are dotted around this beautiful landscape as well, which brings a very emotional and sobering reality to the area. These final resting places of over 1,000,000 soldiers are the testament to the absolute stupidity, the tragedy and the scale of the slaughter. I also saw it as the testament to the criminality of those responsible for an entire generation being sacrificed for absolutely nothing. By and large, these criminals were never held accountable for their crimes against humanity.
The Australian Remembrance Memorial, with over 1,000 headstones on the brow of a low hill that dominates the surrounding country side is another of those other sacred places which I have visited such as in Turkey and Papua New Guinea which create emotions that one has to be a part of to feel. No words can recreate those emotions. There are 11,000 names inscribe on the memorial. These are the names of the Australian missing. Can you even try to imagine how that felt then and even today, feels for the families of those men.
Climbing up to the top of the memorial gives an elevated view of the cemetery and the surrounding countryside. Up there it is so quiet and so contrasting to what it must have been like during those terrible battles. It gives the time to reflect, to remember and to think about all those young men who never came back home.
For me it was a double edged sword. My grandfather, as a 19 year old conscript in the German army fought here as well. Trying to reconcile all this head stuff of being an Australian of very recent German heritage is a pretty hard gig in a place like this. The tragedy of this place impacted on young men and their families on both sides of the conflict. Their sacrificed lives were in such futile vain as absolutely nothing has been learnt by future generations who still go to war and politicians still are responsible for sending young men to kill and die. This point was rammed home by the still visible damage of the memorial. The area again was impacted upon during the second World War a mere 29 years later.
It was we visited the huge British Memorial at Thiepval that the enormity and impact of the whole disastrous, tragic and futile campaigns hits home. Inscribed on the memorial are over 72,000 names of missing British and South African men who died in the Battles of the Somme. The nearby museum has a panel of photographs of just a small portion of these men. Their young faces stare out at you and evoke such incredibly strong feelings. These young men who lie in some unknown forgotten grave in France, were once like any young men of today. They were someones son, father, husband or brother. Gone! No epitaphs - just gone! They stare out at you from the panels and you can’t help but feel them staring at you. It’s then you feel so emotional. Trying to create words to describe it feels so very, very inadequate. Too hard!
Phil and Ann-Marie headed into Paris to do what girls do best - shopping, visited a gallery and undertook some other secret women’s business that mere males have no concept of. They must have had a fun day, as they were a bit lighter Euro wise, a bit heavier bag wise and very happy indeed. JD went and played golf while Volker pulled a sickie and had a day to himself.
The rest of the week was spent catching up with family, exploring the burbs and in general just taking life at a slower pace trying to catch our breath.
Ann-Marie is a wonderful cook and totally shattered our attempts to loose weight after Italy with divine cuisine to die for. Then there was Phil’s niece / Ann-Marie and JD’s daughter - Jennifer and her partner Thomas's barby, not your average couple snags on the barby with a couple of beers type barby. This was a gourmet barby that rivalled her mothers cuisine. The finale was an 18th birthday we were invited to. No party pies or fairy bread here. This was French to the hilt. WOW +++! Do these guys know how to put on an orgasmic gastronomic feed. LOVED IT! Add to this, a selection of French wines throughout the week to help all this on its way. Bordeaux, Cote de Rhone, Medoc, Burgandy etc etc. Life is pretty good!
And that wrapped up the French connection / experience . A big thanks to Ann-Marie and JD for everything. Very appreciated guys.
We are now off to Geordie Land in the United Kingdom - just north of Newcastle on Tyne near the Scottish borders to start our next house sit which will be our home for the next 8 weeks.
Best wishes to you all. Catch you soon.
Lots of love, hugs and best wishes.
Cheers
Philomena and Volker.
