Adventure in Normandie

A moving Anzac Day amid the graves of the fallen of the First World War. Dawn Service was at Polygon Wood where Australians took the wood in September 1917 and where sadly, many are buried who did not survive the battle.

It was lovely to meet old friends and colleagues from when I worked here and especially from when we held the centenary ceremony here in 2017. The event is organised by the local Zonnebeke community.

It was a foggy, cool morning which added to the atmospheric ambiance.

The second ceremony was at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in the world. This was also organised by a local Zonnebeke association. The cemetery is on the opposite side of Zonnebeke village from Polygon Wood and the battle there was called Broodseinde ridge in October 1917.

The third ceremony was under the Menin gate at 11am, a special ceremony for Anzac Day.

After the Menin Gate we walked to the Belgian memorial past the Cloth hall for a short wreath laying ceremony.

The last ceremony of the day was the regular Last Post ceremony at 8pm. We decided to lay a wreath for two names we know on the wall, one of which is my dear friend Skye’s relative.

I was also able to catch up with my dear friend Lea who was busy supporting the Ambassador and military representatives at the ceremonies.

It was a truly lovely experience to be back in Ieper and to commemorate Anzac Day surrounded by the fallen of the First World War. All of the speeches touched on the friendship between Australia, New Zealand and Belgium and mentioned that the work of maintaining relationships and peace is ongoing and not always easy, but is essential. The various speeches also touched on the current uncertainty in world events, drawing parallels to the First World War. They emphasised friendship and solidarity as the cornerstone to ensuring we don’t repeat errors of the past.

We ended the day with a few beers with the Last Post buglers who are truly amazing and dedicated men. Their daily act of remembrance is an inspiration to us all. They all have busy family lives and work and yet they make this enormous commitment to remembering the sacrifice of our dead.

It was a great Anzac Day. Lest we forget.

Here in Belgium there are several communities that commemorate Anzac Day. Over time they have separated out the events so they are not all on 25 April. Today on Anzac Day eve we attended a lovely ceremony at Toronto Avenue cemetery. This is located in the french speaking part of Belgium in the commune of Comines Warneton. This is just down from the town of Messines. In June 2017, Australian soldiers took part in the battle of Messines. Below the ridge is the Ploegsteert forest and in a little corner is the Toronto Avenue cemetery. Here lie 78 soldiers of the Australian 9th brigade. It is the only all Australian cemetery in Belgium. Four of these soldiers were teenagers, two have no name and one comes from Port Augusta in SA. Australia and New Zealand won the ridge but at a very high human cost.

The local association led by passionate President Francois organised the ceremony. I worked closely with him on the Ploegsteert interpretive centre which is just nearby.

In our part of Normandie, along the river, there is the route des fruits, the fruit route. There are many, many apple orchards and also other fruit. There are also crops of canola, wheat, sunflowers and more and many cows for dairy and meat. It is so green, vibrantly green. A colour we see for such a short time in South Australia in our winter. The long grass is lush and it feels so alive with birds chirping and the sun shining and a light breeze.

Another key local industry is alluvial sand and gravel mining. Today on our walk we saw some amorous donkeys and some angry cows!

We saw a farmer bringing in the cows and calves to a new paddock in a trailer. We don’t know why these two weren’t getting along but no doubt it was something to do with their children.

It’s always a lovely time to visit Paris but spring is particularly nice. We just went for a short visit to catch up with friends and collect my parents from the airport.

I always enjoy the Haussmann style buildings which are so emblematic of Paris. I was reading recently that to create these lovely avenues and buildings they knocked down lots of poorer and older sections of Paris and basically left those people homeless. Haussmann ran out of time to finish on the left bank which is why there are still lots of smaller streets around St Michel.

We stayed just near the kids old school and it was the last day of term. We were just working out the car parking and a friendly lady walked past and asked if we needed help!

We walked around some familiar places. The grass on the champ de mars was still having its ‘winter rest’ so you can’t walk on it. We noticed quite a few new coffee places more in the Australian style and a few new dog toy shops!

It’s always a great pleasure to catch up with friends and we had some lovely dinners and lunches during our short visit.

Still no drop in petrol prices and people are getting cranky. It’s about 1.95€ per litre. The news is full of the Middle East crisis.

Stopped off at a chateau on the way home.

It has lots of furniture, clothing and items from the local areas and is only a few kilometres from the village that inspired Madame Bovary. I had visited a few years ago but it was new for the others.

It was a cool and windy day with pockets of sunshine in Porto. We took the metro across the Luis I bridge and then down to the river level via the cable car.

We went for another port tasting at Ramos Pinto. Most port houses are owned by the British as there was a deal done a few hundred years back to raise some money for Portugal and they sold them off.

We went into the amazingly decorated St Francis church which is UNESCO world heritage listed. There was a lot of gold.

We went on a lovely food and wine walking tour of Porto with a knowledgeable and interesting guide. Porto, and Portugal more widely, has had a really strong mark on history. From explorers discovering the world, trade that brought products all around the world, influences on language and food the Portuguese have had a mark on the world.

Traditionally you add cinnamon to your pastel de nata which I quite liked.

The covered market was amazing and very busy on Saturday. There was fruit and veg but also lovely charcuterie, cheeses, olive oils and more. We tasted some delicious goats, cow and sheep cheese along with a wine called Green Wine which is slightly fizzy. It’s not coloured green but called that as it’s an early picked variety.

The bifana was delicious, the meat is slow cooked in a special sauce which is a little spicy. Apparently, the Portuguese actually influenced the creation of curry from their time establishing Goa in India and invented the vindaloo!

We also tasted some cod fish fried in a batter and a yummy chicken and game bird sausage, with watery rice.

Apparently JK Rowling lived in Porto and was influenced by things she saw in Porto and put them in her books. This fountain looks like the Gryfindor creatures. University students in Porto wear black capes! We even saw some. She also used the little house in the photo below.

The reason behind the tiny house between the churches was to separate them to avoid some law, the story is a little vague. We also walked past a famous bookstore that looks very Harry Potter-esque and inspired JK Rowling. The line was long though so we didn’t get in.

A little flight down to Portugal is giving us an experience of Porto. We had an easy ride in on the metro, especially after some nice young woman gave us two spare metro tickets at the airport! A warm sunny afternoon greeted us as we strolled around.

There are a few hills, so it’s very up and down walking around. It just means we can eat more pastel de nata ( or other pastries)! All the prices seem pretty reasonable.

We poked our head into a few shops to discover some mid season sales! This display was demonstrating the excellent quality of the waterproof material!

The weather continued to be lovely today. We went for a lovely walk amongst the apple orchards and did a bit more gardening. We tried to order some construction wood for the next project but were defeated by poor logistics at the hardware company.

We got a bit creative about creating a fire pit in the garden with some old pavers. Can’t wait to test it out!

After all the work we deserved a treat. 😁

It’s fun to see all the robot lawmowers around. I wouldn’t mind getting one but not sure if it would cope with all the mole hills.

Listening to the news today and it seems like France is expecting a reduction in petrol prices soon with the news of a ceasefire in the Middle East. Although people are complaining that the price went up quickly but is coming down slowly. The war is all over the the news and they are also worried about stagflation and a possible recession. Another common theme with Australia are daily stories about the rise of AI.

When it’s growing season in France things really grow fast. Starting with the grass! We have a public access path alongside the house that leads to the river and the council don’t quite get around to cutting regularly. Which can make things a bit dicey on the ankles given that we also have moles and lumpy mounds of dirt from their mole hills. A holiday at the farmhouse usually starts with some whipper snipper activity.

We popped over to Duclair for the market (Tuesdays) and found some seasonal fruit and veg.

It was another beautiful, sunny day and we saw many beautiful blooms on our walk.

My new apple tree is just starting to grow!

But I might have been too harsh on the rosemary 🤔.

Feeling a little like Odysseus who had a long return journey, we arrived back in France via the scenic route. The war in Iran affected our trip so we had to change to a route via South Africa and London before arriving in Ambourville.

Flying over the Channel there was a period of clear sky and at one point I could see both the English coast behind us and the French coast ahead! Proving just how close the counties are to each other. It also made me think of my grandfather who must have flown similar routes in WWII as he went on bombing raids in his Lancaster. Although I am sure he was not as comfortable as I was in the plane. We flew directly over Dieppe and almost over the farmhouse!

It was a glorious spring day and we decided to make the most of it. Before arriving at the house we stopped off at a chateau.

We walked up the steep hill where the chateau stood on a very high limestone cliff.

Built in the record time of two years, the Chateau de Gaillard was built by Richard the Lionhart in 1198. He was both King of England and Duke of Normandy and had a bit of an on-and-off friendship with Phillip Auguste, King of France. The chateau or really, fort, has the most amazing view of the river Seine and far beyond.

Shortly after Richard died Philippe Auguste decided he really wanted to have the chateau and he set siege to it. Finally in 1204 he won the castle and then the duchy of Normandy became part of France.

One reason I was interested in this castle is because of the story of Marguerite and Blanche de Bourgogne who were imprisoned here in 1314. I read a history of the early kings of France given to me by my friend Estelle « Les rois maudits » ( The accursed kings) which tells their story. Accused of adultery they were imprisoned even though Marguerite became Queen of France by her marriage and she eventually died at Chateau Gaillard.

We finished the day with a little walk at La Bouille under lots of trees in blossom.