Reims, the Somme and Montreuil

Thursday 5^th September Reims

We had breakfast with Richard before he headed off to Calais and then on to Cardiff with his friends. Mike and I then walked into Reims city centre. We weren’t going to 'do' anymore cathedrals but Reims was quite imposing. It was the cathedral where the majority of France’s kings were crowned from the 11^th century up to the Revolution.  Neither did I know that it was in this city that the WWII surrender papers were signed.

Having done a bit of culture we then headed to the tourist information office to get some information about the Champagne caves that abound here.   We chose to go to theTaittinger cave in the end as we could walk there and you didn’t need an appointment.  We paid 16 euros each for a very interesting tour.  The caves were originally underneath a basilica and adjoining a monastery and was were the monks stored their wine. The caves were originally created by the gallo-romans as they dug the chalk out to make a type of cement. The Basilica was destroyed in the reformation but the cellars remain and were taken over by the Taittinger family.  It is still a family run business. Despite the sight of a rat which made a lady squeal and land on my toes we enjoyed the tour which finished with a glass of champagne. We also bought two bottles of pink champagne.  One for a friend and one for Christmas.

We walked back through the City to Buster where we had our lunch in the park behind where the motorhomes were parked and enjoyed the shady sunshine.

Friday 6^th September The Somme

I did 3.5 hours work using the wifi from the hostel which was adjacent to our aire in Reims. It was about 12.30pm when we set off northwards. Our plan was to visit the Remembrance Route in the Somme region between Peronne and Albert. However before we got there we found ourselves on the Chemin des Dames which was another area where the French suffered huge losses of men during WWI. Looking out over the beautiful countryside it was difficult to imagine what it was like in 1916.

The Remembrance Route takes in the 8 main memorials at Peronne, Rancourt, Longueval, Pozieres, Thiepval, Beaumont-Havel and Albert. All commerate various battles during the war with a different focus depending on the battalions involved. So that some remembered the fallen South Africans or Australians or those from Ulster and Newfoundland. Various other countries from the commonwealth who supported the French and English armies were also represented.  The largest monument is at Thiepval and stands 45m high.   It was designed by Edward Lutyens and along with the numerous gravestones also includes the names of 72,000 British men who were lost in the Somme. A total of 1.2 miliion men lost their lives during the battle of the Somme in which 12km of land was gained. It was so moving to see the gravestones of so many men who died in this period. Mike found three bearing the name HAW. All of the memorials were kept immaculately and with the centenary of the beginning of the war being next year there were many memorial events being planned. That night we slept in Albert near the Somme museum which we planned to visit the following day.

Saturday 7^th September Albert to Montreuil

The Somme museum in Albert was very interesting and we spent about 2 hours there. It contained a history of the battles plus lots of artefacts and mock up scenes. The museum was built in an underground tunnel that went back to the 13^th century. It was also used as an air raid shelter in WWII.  This made it rather atmospheric and fitting for the Somme museum.  You had to travel the final stretch of the museum in the dark accompanied by the sounds of falling bombs. Again Mike and I found it quite an emotional visit and to rediscover that worldwide 6.5 million lives were lost in WWI.

We had a much needed coffee in Buster before setting off to Montreuil all on smaller roads.  This made a pleasant drive. We stopped off at a picnic area for lunch and reached Montreuil in the mid afternoon. We walked around the town and on the remains of the towns ramparts that led to a 13^th century citadel. It is a pleasant town and is one of Catherine and Martin's favourites. Whilst walking we identified a restaurant Le Clos des Capuchins as we had decided we would have our ‘end of trip’ meal here.

Back at the van we got dressed up and headed back to the restaurant for 7.30pm. We had a lovely meal. We both had duck in a cassis sauce for a main course followed by cheese. Mike had a vegetable terrain as a starter and I had a soupy calamara dish. We spent most of the evening  reminiscing about the other meals we had had on our travels. It was a good night.