History lesson

As I mentioned, my darling mummy was perturbed that I haven't blogged about the final stage of our trip back in April.

And I do feel that I should finish
(1) because we stayed at one of THE loveliest BnB’s I’ve ever seen
and (2) because of the ANZAC Day dawn service we attended.


First up: the BnB.
Les Chambres d’Aumont, located 15 minutes out of Amiens.

Beautifully restored, tastefully furnished. The owners were away for the weekend so we had the place all to ourselves.

Both Herge and M quite fancied the lovely French girl who came to serve us breakfast each morning. They both felt that she would be more efficient in her work though if dressed in a French Maid's outfit.

Queue eye-rolling from me. Clearly they'd spent too long together in a 2-man tent.

This photo is a little funky and really doesn't do the gorgeous room justice

The 4 guest rooms are located here

And this is the little shack the owners live in.

Not too shabby

Next:
Amiens itself was lovely - we didn't spend that long there, just enough time to check out the famous Cathedral (the tallest in France) and to find a nice river-side place for lunch.

Finally - Villers Bretonneux and ANZAC Day

A little bit of background for my non-Australian non-New Zealander readers.

ANZAC Day – 25 April – marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. This is significant as it was the first time Australians and New Zealanders fought under their own flags, rather than as part of Great Britain.

When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The government of this 'new' nation were eager to establish its reputation among the nations of the world. So off to war they marched.

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli in Turkey (see this blog for photos from my trip there last August) on 25 April. What had been planned as a bold attempt to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight fairly horrific months. News of the landing on Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became an important part of the identity of both nations and indeed for Turkey too.

The Australian War Memorial in France is located in Villers-Bretonneux.

The school in Villers-Bretonneux was rebuilt using donations from school children from Victoria (many of whom had relatives perish in the town's liberation), and above every blackboard is the inscription "N'oublions jamais l'Australie" (Never forget Australia)

The small but informative and interesting Franco-Australian museum located in the school that we visited the day before ANZAC Day to brush up on our historical knowledge.

I know some people see the recent increase in attendance at dawn services, particulary from younger people within Australia and abroad as merely another sign of mob mentality and a chance for bogans to wear their Aussie flags to another non-sporting event.

However, I found the service incredibly moving.

I've attended many dawn services in Australia, mostly at Victor Harbor where my grandma goes and this one was particularly memorable.

Brigadier Chris Appleton gave the opening address, and he spoke beautifully and passionately on how important it is to commemorate the dead without glorifying war. That we all must recognise that the events that caused those millions of deaths should never be allowed to occur again.
That we cannot see their deaths as pointless – that we must not.

It was sobering and I’m extremely glad we made the little deviation to our travel plans to attend.


When we first arrived, just moments before the ceremony began, even though there were over 5000 people (and a surprising number of French people too) sitting in a dark field, it was eerily quiet.

and slowly ....

.... the sun came up

After the Last Post had been played, a commemorative address given by K.Rudd and hymns and National Anthems sung (or mumbled), it was time to leave.

I really like this photo

(the one below, not the hideous one of me above)

And then it was a long, cold walk back to the car in the early morning haze.

Hope you're still with me!
Sorry for the history lesson. I'll be back blogging about my weird, trivial crap tomorrow.

B xx