The Somme

Today was a big day from 8am to 8pm visiting the Somme WW1 battlefields with Salient Tours. It was a great trip and was also Canada Day so we had some lovely Canadians with us. Visited Vimy Ridge, Beaumont Hamel where they were having a Canadian memorial service, Lochnagar Crater which was huge. Our driver had discovered a paddock full of poppies prior to our trip so he took us there for a visit, they were just gorgeous.

He then drove us to a potato crop that had a bit of bare ground around the edges to do our own archeological digs. Farmers are forever finding WW1 relics when they work the ground. I won the competition by finding a German WW1 live Mauser bullet, others found shrapnel and bits of old shell. We emptied the gun powder out by breaking the end off the bullet so hopefully we will get it home. 

My bullet shell.

Then we were privileged to be taken to Laboisselle where archeologists are working on a WW1 site opening up old tunnels finding old tools etc. They chatted to us about their findings and the story of the site then showed us the original tunnels they are in the midst of opening up. Everything else we had seen on the tour had been reconstructed so it was great to see the real thing. This particular sight is not open to the public so we were lucky. Our last visit was the Thiepval Memorial the largest for the missing of the Somme all 73,000 of them. By the time we arrived in Arras it was 8pm. Our driver left us at the Arras railway station where a helpful Frenchman worked the ticket machine for our ticket to Paris. The next train was 9.50pm so we had a meal over the road then it was time to hit the track and by 10.20pm we were in Paris. We were pleased to arrive at our hotel for a good nights sleep.