France Here We Come!



Leon and Sarah

Had a Burrito night and a great catch up, meeting their two little girls, Chloe and Evie

3.05

Travelled 4 hours to Dover with a stop for provisions.  Spent the night on the Dover sea front and enjoyed fish’n chips on the beach.





  4.05



 Up  and boarded the “Spirit Of France” Ferry.  Off to France, Dover to Calais -yahoooo! 88 pounds for the one and a half hour crossing.
 'Keep right'! was top of mind as we hit the motorway and headed North.  Awesome to be back in France even if it is only for a couple of hours at this stage!  We're headed for the Flanders battle fields in Belgium, in particular Ypres.

 We found a campsite named 'Jeugdstation' along the river and close to the Town Centre.  Twelve euros per night.

Ypres is known as the town of cats!  Back in the day Ypres was a Cloth City.  Legend has it  the Cloth Hall became inundated with mice, these rodents could only be eliminated with the help of a large number of cats.  Soon the mouse plague became a cat infestation. To rid themselves of the cats they threw them off the highest tower!  They also burnt all the witches in town!  So now, every year they have a “Cat Parade” complete with floats and everyone dresses up as cats and mice. They then proceed to throw toy cats from the highest buildings and have a witch burning.  We miss it by a week which is a shame as I could have got rid of Pam!!!
The town buildings have plastic cats mounted on them that “meow” as you pass.


We went exploring along one of the many bike paths along the river, over the bridge and into the Town Centre with it's magnificent Gothic style Cathedral and Museum. Ypres has become associated with Commonwealth forces who were here continuously from October 1914 - October 1918, many reminders of the profound impression the war made remain, the most potent being the Commonwealth cemeteries and memorials.

The main memorial is the Menin Gate, one of the most famous memorials in the world. It has the names of over 54,000 missing soldiers inscribed on its walls.  Hundreds of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers passed through Ypres on their way to the battlefields and it was decided that the missing should be commemorated on a memorial here.  Every night of the year at 8pm, the Last Post is sounded and wreaths are laid.  This has been happening since 1927.

05.05

Cycling is a very popular form of transport here. The region is beautifully set up for it with bike paths along all roads and canals. We biked 22kms along the bike path through the countrysde to Passchendale and to the Tyne Cot Cemetery.  With nearly 12,000 graves it is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. More than 8,000 are unidentified. This is the main memorial for the New Zealand troops.  Another emotional encounter.

6.05

Spent the morning chatting to our camp neighbours who gave us good advice on places to visit and  vanning in general.  We then biked along the river and explored the town centre. Checked out the Charcuterie and sampled the local sausages. We didn’t like them much as they were quite raw and Pam prefers an older and drier sausage!!





Tomorrow into the Somme!!