Vimy Ridge and the Tour Eiffel

What could be more different than Vimy Ridge and the Tour Eiffel?

We headed out around 8:00 for a two to two and a half hour drive from Paris to Vimy Ridge in Normandy. We drove through lovely farm land, a small town and then saw the signs for the Canadian Monument. Our first stop was for a tour of the trenches, bunkers, tunnels and observation posts. We decended under ground into the tunnels that were carved into the chalky rock. The Canadian Army used real miners to dig through the rock which seems to have been advantageous compared to the German trenches that appeared to be mere metres away. They were quite intact, except that the wooden supports and the sandbags were replaced with cement when the site became a monument. Even though the tunnels are not that deep, the change in pressure From the tunnels to the surface is enough to make one feel weak when returning to ground level. The areas around the trenches are protected with electric fences, thus protecting us from possible unexploded mortars. The surface is pitted with craters from mortars, shells and mines. Some of the craters were the result of sappers digging underneath a German tunnel and then blowing it up.

We walked a very short distance to the German side before walking up the hill to the highest point in the area - Vimy Ridge. As we walked towards it we could see the two spires of the monument reaching up to the heavens. The monument was built in the 1930s to commemorate the
dead. It focuses on the sorrow associated with war rather than celebrating a victory. On the far side there is a statue of a woman, representing Canada, holding a laurel branch down by her side and looking down on a tomb. It was incredibly moving. All around the white marble monument, the names of the men missing and presumed dead are carved. It is said that Hitler was in the area near Vimy Ridge during WWI and that he returned during WWII. Since the monument focuses on the sorrow of so many lives lost and not on the victory over the Germans, he left it intact.

We walked over to a Commonwealth cemetery. All the these cemeteries were designed the same way with identical white marble graves stones for everyone from privates to majors. If they new the regiment, it's crest was carved into the stone. Most of the graves stones had the phrase "known only unto God" and unfortunately there were 6000 of them.

We returned to Paris, stopping a rest stop for lunch. We arrived back in Paris around 4:00 and thought it would be brilliant to visit the Fragonard Perfume Museum. The free visit cost some of us some money as we could not resist the perfumes. We had rotisserie chicken for dinner and then our faithful driver Ali drove us to the Eiffel Tour. Can you believe it, it took us as long to wait in the queue for the Eiffel Tour as it did to drive to Vimy Ridge? Anyway, it was a lovely night and we got back to the hotel around 11:30.

Tomorrow: the Louvre, Montmartre and the night train to Venice.

We may not be able to post tomorrow. It will depend on Internet access.