Tuesday evening, April 4th, Marie and I will climb aboard a British Airways jet at Montréal's Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport and head east to Heathrow Airport in London and begin our 36-day adventure to England and France! The main purpose of the trip is to attend what will probably be the last General Navereau School Reunion for me, this being the 50th anniversary of when my family and I left Europe to return to Canada in 1967. Twenty five former students, spouses and friends will be gathering for four days in Metz, France, former home of No. 1 Air Division Headquarters of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Our fathers were posted here during the 50s and 60s before the French government closed down the facilities and the Metz Brats, as we are known as, have endeavoured to keep alive the memory of our school years there through these reunions held every four or five years. This will be our second reunion, the first one we attended held in Ottawa 10 years or so ago. Marie and I had visited Metz and the area in spring of 2014, had had such a good time that we decided this would be the perfect excuse to return. We want to travel as light as possible and have packed only enough clothes and accessories for a week at a time, planning on doing a lot of walking and exploring. Our first layover in London will be for three days and nights before moving on to Canterbury for another four days to meet some old friends and revisit my home town. I had last been in London in the 70s during my career in the Navy and Marie had been there about the same time. From there we will head to Metz where a full four days of events, visits and dinners have been scheduled. After we leave Metz we will be spending a few days in Paris, then on to Vimy Ridge, Caen, back to England (Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight and Weymouth), before returning to France. From Cherbourg we visit Huisnes-Sur-Mer, Mont St Michel, St. Malo, La Rochelle, Fontenay-la-Compe and return to Paris for our flight home on the 9th May. We will attempt to visit as many as WWI and WW2 battlefields and memorials as possible, take a ferry to Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, for a day trip, do some genealogical research on Marie's ancestors, and most importantly, try to shake off the winter blahs that have lingered on much too long this year. Hopefully you will follow us along the way and enjoy some of the places we visit, people we meet and new discoveries I'm sure we will encounter around every corner. gws
