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| Courtyard of our tiny studio apartment |
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| Gare de Nord, train to Lens |
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| arriving Lens...all aboard! |
The train from Paris to Lens was late in departure and, not thinking Easter Monday was a holiday here (though I should have known better), we found everything closed and missed the only connecting bus to Souchez, our next stop until Thursday. It was uncomfortably cold and the deserted town did little to warm our hearts. We eventually found an enterprising Frenchman from Tunisia at a local bar who, for 20 Euro, agreed to drive us to Souchez, 10 minutes up the road. Souchez lies about 8 kilometres from Arras and close to the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge. Completely destroyed during World War 1 it is now a hodge podge of architectural designs, compact and very French but very welcoming to Canadian visitors whom come to pay their respects at Vimy. Our hosts, Muriel and Serge welcomed us into their lovely home, and realizing our predicament and the only grocers closed, insisted we join them for supper with their two grandchildren. We had a homemade poireaux soup, bread, cheese and wine - a typical French supper.
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| 82 Rue Raoul Briquet, Souchez, France |
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| Backyard pond |
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path to Canadian Cemetery Givenchy-En-Gohelle
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But before eating we had the chance to walk along the pathway behind their home to the Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian cemetery, a half hour stroll on the way to Vimy Ridge. Here we are in the centre of a region containing hundreds of Commonwealth, French and German cemeteries. More than 7000 fallen Canadians are buried in 30 war cemeteries within a 20-kilometre radius of where we are staying. Givenchy-en-Gohelle is a small out of the way spot near the road to Arras, resting place for about over 150 fallen Canadian soldiers. Of these nearly one-fifth are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 15 Canadian soldiers believed to be buried among them. We wrote our respects in the Registry book on site and returned down the
sentier, greeting the occasional rider on horseback as the clouds, now dispersing, allowed us to be warmed by the late afternoon sun. After our fine welcome we slept well our first night there, anticipating a long walk to the French War Cemetery in Notre-Dame de Lorette the next morning.
gws
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| Givenchy-en-Gohelle Canadian cemetery |
