Switzerland

23rd December

On Wednesday Roland, Wayne and I headed for Switzerland.  We took the road along the Swiss side of Lake Léman where the countryside was again covered with vineyards.  Roland showed us the mechanism they use (which looked a bit like a mini rollercoaster track) to transport the grapes from the vineyards to the winery.  The workers who tend these fields must be part mountain goat because they are incredibly steep with very little room between rows of vines.

We stopped at a little winery for a “degustation.”  We enjoyed a couple of lovely wines and the lady hosting us was really not stingy at all with the portions.  Roland said it is almost impossible to buy Swiss wine in France and the lady at the winery explained to us that almost 100% of Swiss wine is consumed in Switzerland with almost zero exportation. Wayne and I really enjoyed the wines we tried, so bought a couple of bottles to enjoy later in our trip since we won’t be able to get it elsewhere.

We then went and had a quick snack in Laussane before heading for Geneva.  Geneva is a brand lover’s heaven:  Hermès, Mont Blanc, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Tag Heuer, Tiffany.  You name it, it’s all there if you’ve got the money to splash about.  What amused me was the McDonald’s nestled between all these designer brands.

In the evening, Wayne and I took Roland and Christine out to a restaurant in the old part of Annecy to try a raclette.  This is a dish which comprises cold meats, salad, boiled potatoes and a contraption which melts the special raclette cheese.  Once you have a good portion of melted cheese on the plate under the apparatus, you spread it over the top of your boiled potatoes.  Yummy.

Strolling around the town at night was magical with the Christmas lights twinkling.

Chamonix

Today we went to Chamonix with our friend Roland.  This was high on Wayne’s list of priorities while we were in this area and we both had a lovely day.

Unfortunately for the region, snow is fairly thin on the ground at the moment and with the Christmas holidays having started in France, I’m sure some of the ski resorts are suffering… or people who have booked skiing holidays are disappointed (although there were still some runs opened).

Wayne and I took the chairlift up to the base of one of the ski runs at Chamonix-Brévent.  The mountains around us were certainly majestic.  We enjoyed a mulled wine and with the sun shining, it was even hot enough to dispense with the beanie, scarf, gloves and a couple of layers of clothing.

As the weather was so good, Roland took us over the border to Switzerland where we were also treated to some spectacular views.  We drove down a windy mountain pass to view the city of Martigny nestled in the immense valley.  This area is a big fruit and wine growing region and we marvelled at the vineyards which were covered the steep hillsides.

At Villneuve we had a view of the huge Lake Léman but unfortunately the fog was starting to roll in and it obscured our view of some of the cities across the lake such as Lausanne.

Tomorrow we will explore more of this beautiful area… I think we will be heading into Switzerland again.

Battle of the Somme - Day 2

19th December

On day two of our Battle of the Somme tour, it was just Wayne and I travelling with Sylvestre.  Even though I had done this tour before, there are so many different sites, that I actually saw lots of different things compared to last time.

At Chipilly we visited a monument which pays tribute to the millions of horses who served alongside the military in World War I.  Sylvestre told us that in France, even a carrier pigeon has been awarded the Legion of Honour for delivering a message that saved over 200 men.

We then visited a South African monument.  The entry is a forest of oak trees which were planted after World War I.  The acorns came from South Africa; however, the interesting thing is that the acorns came from trees that had grown from acorns brought to South Africa by fleeing Huguenots.  There is only one tree (a hornbeam tree) that remains from the original forest and it is fenced off for protection, although Sylvestre told us that at over 100 years old, it dying.

We then visited a New Zealand Cemetery where the unknown soldier of New Zealand was once buried.

At Cobber’s Memorial, we witnessed more feats of German concreting ingenuity.

Just down the road from Cobber’s Memorial is a cemetery called VC Corner.  Sylvestre told us the story of the Wilson brothers.  They had been buried in a “mass grave” by German soldiers after the Battle of Fromelles (I’m sure many Australians reading this will remember that a few years back a site was found at Pheasant Wood with the remains of 250 mostly Australian soldiers).  The bodies were exhumed and many of them have since been identified thanks to DNA.  Sylvestre told us that “mass grave” really has a negative connotation and that in fact, the Germans has buried these bodies with great respect.  Obviously realising that the Wilsons were brothers, they buried them side-by-side.

We later visited the Fromelles cemetery and saw the new graves of the Wilson boys… still side-by-side.

Our last stop before making it to Ypres was over the Belgian border and to the site where my great-uncle George Swalling was killed.  He has no known grave, but if his remains were found, they were probably buried in the nearby Tyne Cot cemetery.

Sylvestre dropped us off in Ypres and we found Uncle George’s name on the Menin Gate.

This town was pretty much totally destroyed during World War I, but you wouldn’t know it; the Cloth Hall (Town Hall) and Cathedral were reproduced from plans that survived and you would swear they are hundreds of years old.

After a lovely dinner of Flemish stew, we finished our evening back at the Menin Gate for the nightly Last Post.  This has happened every night since the end of World War I, with the exception of during World War II.

Battle of the Somme Tour - Day 1

18th December

After leaving Paris, Wayne and I boarded a train to head to Amiens.  On the first night we wandered around MORE Christmas markets and then went to the evening illuminations on the façade of the cathedral.  While it was very good, it paled in comparison to the illumination spectacular I saw in Avignon at the Palais des Papes a number of weeks ago.

I had done a Battle of the Somme tour three years ago and Wayne was also keen to visit this area.  I booked back with the same tour company as I travelled with three years ago because I had enjoyed it so much (Terres de Memoire).  Along with five other Aussies and our guide, Sylvestre, we discovered important sites relevant to Australian involvement in World War I.  Our first stop was the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.  Sylvestre told us the story of Sergeant D Badger who was killed in action and his body never recovered.  He had written a letter to his parents marked, “to be opened when I am dead.”  He gave directions for his personal effects but also asked his parents not to mourn him because he had done his duty and he would do it all again.  He concluded with the message, “All I ask is that you send another in my place.” So his parents sent his younger brother.

We then visited the Victoria School whose construction was funded after World War I by Victorian school children.  It is undergoing quite a bit of renovation at the moment (in fact a lot of sites were in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the Somme battles in 1916), so part of the museum has been temporarily moved to the school hall.  School halls really don’t exist in France; this school has one because of its connection to Australia.

After this, we visited a German cemetery which was quite different from those of the allied forces we had seen.  Sylvestre explained that unlike the cemeteries and memorials of the allied soldiers, German cemeteries were always on little back roads with little sign posting to show their existence.  After the end of the war, when the Germans requested to bury their dead in this area, they were allowed to do so, but the crosses had to be black.  Being World War I, there were also a number of Jewish headstones in the cemetery.

One of the ladies on our tour had a grandfather who had served in World War I as a medic and we visited the château which was the dressing station where he had worked.

Next we went to a giant crater which was the result of underground mining by Welsh troops.  They would dig under the German line and set explosives.  Under this particular section of the front line, 28 tons of explosive were used.  The photo doesn’t really show the depth of the crater as we saw it in real life.  There were a number of these types of mining operations and it sometimes took many months of digging to reach their objective.  “Beneath Hill 60” is an Australian movie which recounts the story of Australian miners doing the same thing in a place not far from where we visited.

We then visited Pozières.  This site was where there was a two week struggle for the village which cost 23000 young Australian lives. According to Australian war historian Charles Bean, Pozières ridge “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth.”

We then headed into farmland where we came across a German bunker which had acted as a command centre.  Sylvestre joked that the Germans aren’t very funny but they do a good job with concrete.  The thickness of the concrete and its reinforcing (e.g. part of a railway track) meant that it was indestructible.

Sylvestre then told us it was time to go “souvenir shopping.”  We walked across the road and started foraging along the edge of the ploughed paddock.  It wasn’t long until we all started to find pieces of shrapnel and other bits of metal that were the remnants of old shells.  Sylvestre even found the bottom half of an old bomb casing.

Our final two stops were the memorial at Thiepval which has the names of over 73000 missing British soldiers and then a Newfoundland memorial where we were able to actually walk in a front line trench.