Vimy Ridge and Naours

First thing was a walk to find the site of the Pheasants Wood mass graves. We had a very nice sunny walk through the wood but couldn’t find anything.

After a Google we figured out we had gone past it on entering the wood. There is a plaque there but no indication as to where the graves were.

You can see some indentations in the grass where 2 mass graves have been examined and refilled. Also here are the Germans burying the bodies.

After getting organised back at the van we drove on to Vimy Ridge where the Canadians overcame the Germans where the British had a couple of unsuccessful attempts. We first had a look at the huge monument.

The names of all Canadians killed are on the monument.

We then walked through the forest seeing many bomb craters with sheep there keeping the grass short in the red zones - less risky than lawn mowers. I hope they don’t step on a bomb!

We arrived just in time to get the tour of the preserved tunnels and trenches with Bronwyn from Canada.

The British had tried a couple of times to break through the Germans at Vimy Ridge with no success. The Canadians arrived in 1917 and did a lot of preparatory digging of tunnels and trenches before attacking and successful defeating the Germans.

The tunnels were originally a lot narrower and lower. They have been modified for tourist safety.

Amazingly the Canadian and German trenches were less than 100 meters apart.

The German trenches were a lot better developed as they had been there a lot longer.

There are some big craters on the crater line in no man’s land where a tunnel had been dug and exploded underneath the enemy tunnel.

In the small museum we found info on the battle and on the creation of the huge monument.

Back near the monument we liked the squirrels or chipmunks on the foot of the flagpoles.

We had our van lunch and then drove on to our night stop in Naours at the caves, seeing a lot of farming on the way. There are 4 tractors in this photo.

We arrived in the medieval town of Naours north of Amiens mid afternoon so we just had time to check out the tunnels. It was a self guided tour with audio guide - and it was only us for most of the time so it was a bit spooky - particularly as it was Halloween. We had already seen the witches and warlocks wandering around the streets with their pumpkin cans.

We went underground 20 meters and found out how these tunnels had been originally used to quarry chalk for the fields. Here is the explanation:

‘For centuries, Picardy has had numerous wars and invasions. The chalk mines were used as shelters for the inhabitants and their property and then became underground hiding places, they are known as "muches" or hiding places in the Picard language.

The Underground City was dug by hand. At its peak, there were 28 galleries and 300 rooms. It was occupied from the Middle Ages until the 17th century, the underground passages fell into disuse until they were rediscovered by Abbott Danicourt in 1887. He added a few religious statues and the rooms were again used as a shelter. ‘

Fossils were found in the rocks.

In WW1 many soldiers came to visit and left their graffiti. Many were Australians and their stories are told in the exhibition at the end.

In WWII the Germans used the tunnels for shelter, and fortunately did allow the locals to come down too.

At the end there was an exhibition of occupations in the 1700s.

The old woman on the right hand side of Glenn is a lottery seller with numbered balls in her bag. I now see where France’s fascination with lotteries comes from.

Glenn found his soulmate the sheep shearer.

There was then an exhibition related to the Australian soldiers showing them enjoying their time off.

They also had many stories on what happened to them.

Here is the sniper of Wagga Wagga.

It is disputed as to who shot down the Red Baron but the angle of the shot indicates it was from the ground - by Australian soldier Harold Edwards.

All the stories of all soldiers were amazing including a Scottish one from New Deer.

We were able to stay the night in the carpark and went for a walk uptown to the only shop cum bar cum bistro - very interesting. The houses are definitely medieval.

We thought we would have a long lie next morning. However we woke up to a lot of cars arriving and lots of crashing and banging. We looked outside and there was an event happening with someone controlling the parking and a canopy area registering people. A bike race was starting soon. We had to move to the side of the carpark to have our coffee. We then had 30 minutes to move on as we would get blocked in. We quickly got packed up and moved to another carpark nearby to have breakfast before driving on for the day.