France - Tour de France - July 2009

The Tour de France has always a highlight on the yearly sporting calendar for me and as we love France, we thought, what the hey, let's go and see France, have a great time and check out Cadel and the rest of the riders at the tour.

We had just bought a tent and some various camping paraphernalia and off we went!

We were not really sure what to expect...how fast would they go? Would there be a breakaway? What would it be like?

It was brilliant!

We saw two stages - one, a really steep mountain stage and our car was part of the Tour as we had the 5 kilometre to Summet banner tied to our car. It was also really wet and a tad difficult to recognise the riders due to their rain jackets but hey, we were at le tour and it was bloody cool anyway.

Check the pics.

Troyes and Champagne Region - France - July 2009

Troyes is an interesting city, on the edge of the Champagne Region, not a million miles from Paris.

A picturesque city and coincidentally, if viewed from above, shaped like a champagne cork - unplanned as the design of the city was completed before champagne became as popular as it is, but nevertheless, an interesting coincidence.

The Champagne Region is, unpredictably, where the wonderful drink of champagne is produced.

There are loads and loads of champagne wineries, from small producers in beautiful villages, right through to the major producers like Moet, Mumm, etc who are found in the town of Epernay.

We took a tour through the Mercier champagne winery and it was really quite good.

Enjoy the pics.

York - May 2009

And so it was that, one fine sunny Saturday morning, I, along with Samantha, Jean - Samantha's mother, and Elizabeth, Samantha's Aunt, ventured south on the A1(M) to the wonderful city of York.

Above the geordie din emanating from the back seat, I could just about hear the car motor as we cruised onwards.

After an hour or so, we did indeed arrive at York and we travelled into the centre of town for a look around on the trusty park and ride bus. Very efficient they are too, I must hasten to add.

York, as mentioned, is a wonderful city, with many fine buildings and sights to explore and enjoy.

York Minster is always a good first stop followed by the meandering streets of York, including the superbly named 'The Shambles'.

Following that, I engineered an escape and made my way around the old city walls - stopping, as you do, periodically, for a photograph opportunity or two.

Finally, after meeting up with the Geordies and fellow Aussie Battler, Samantha - the two of us ventured down towards the National Railway Museum.

The Railway Museum is really cool, even if you are not nuts about trains. Well, I suppose you'd need at least a passing interest, but that said, there's plenty to keep both ardent and non ardent railway afficianodo's occupied and pleased.

Then, back into the car and back up to Durham - a good day out for all.

London - April 2009

It's been a lifelong ambition of Samantha's to become a true blue Little Aussie Battler! (well, who can blame her, she was born in England, so some of us have a heavy cross to bear!)

After some paperwork and to-ing and fro-ing between here and Australia's Passport Offices and then London's Australian High Commission, Samantha and I travelled down to London to participate in the ceremony to become and Australian citizen, and therefore, a Little Aussie Battler!

Australia House is pretty cool and was even the venue for one of the Harry Potter films...very grand indeed.

Here are the pics, with a couple from the Law area of London too.

Etretat & Honfleur - Normandie - France - April 2009

After we had visited Villers-Bretonneaux for Anzac Day, we drove down to the Normandie coast and stayed at a small town called Etretat.

Etretat is a nice town, most notable for cider (Normandie is famous for cider - loads of apples) and also an unusual rock formation on the coastline, resembling an elephant's trunk, dipping into the water.

We really enjoyed our short time in Etretat and just a short distance down the coast is a larger town called Honfleur.

Loads of tourists as it was a superb day, but not overly touristy and a really cool place to visit.

The harbour in Honfleur is very impressive, especially with the tall building overlooking the old harbour.

The Somme - France - April 2009 (Anzac Day)

As all (true) Australians know, Anzac Day means a lot to us.

Sure, it represents, to some, an Australian battle at Gallipoli where we lost hundreds of young men in the first world war but it has come to mean more than that - as it's about mateship, courage and determination in the face of adversity - all characteristics that mean everything to Australians and highlight our view on life.

However, whilst Gallipoli has received the major amount of publicity - probably due to this being one of the first major conflicts Australia has served in - there were actually more Australian men fighting in Northern France and Belgium at the Western Front.

Consequently, more Australian men died in World War I in these battles and many battles were far more important in terms of the outcome of the war than the battles at Gallopoli.

We did visit Gallipoli last year and this was a really momentous occasion as some of my Great Uncles fought there and one of my mothers uncles won the Military Medal for courage and service as a field ambulanceman in the Light Horse Regiment.

However, it was especially poignant for us to visit The Somme and the battlefields of Northern France as one of my Great Uncles fought and died in the Battle of Mont St Quentin in 1918. (Sadly, only a few short months shy of the war ending but that's the way it was for many other fine and brave men from both sides)

This visit coincided with Anzac Day and we wanted to attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service in France at Villers-Bretonneaux.

This was the second official service at Villers-Bretonneaux, with the 2008 service being the first.

Of course, we were surprised to learn, perhaps through our ignorance, that Villers-Bretonneaux itself has been conducting services for some time as recognition for Australian troops liberating their town in 1918.

In fact, they have a wonderful museum in their small town, at the local primary school no less, that celebrates the immense contribution that Australian servicemen made towards France, the allied forces and the towns and cities of the Western Front during World War I.

The museum was superb actually and was partly the result of a gift of aid from Victoria in the 1920's, after the war. It highlighted so many of the Australian servicemens stories and how they fought in the war.

We have visited France previously and Northern France was always described as rather industrial and therefore we were not overly bothered in the past but I can safely say that these descriptions are complete crap.

The area of The Somme (the beautiful river of the Picardie region) is wonderful and absolutely superb in terms of beauty and style and with so much history, it is definitely a part of the world we will revisit.

The day before the service we had driven to Amiens to base ourselves and following this, we visited many of the Australian memorials. Most are near small towns and yes, there are 91 years since the fighting ended there in World War I but there is no indication at all with the beauty of the area to indicate such conflict.

We visisted Villers-Bretonneaux - with the Australian War Memorial and the town, with the Franco-Australian museum - Le Hamel, where Australian troops were credited with shooting down the Red Baron. This memorial was in the middle of a crop field and still had trenches - but it was beautifully situated and so peaceful.

Following this, we searched and found my Great Uncle's grave at Hem-Monacu Farm Military Cemetery.

Francs Noble was a Lieutenant in the Australian Army 2nd Battalion and on the morning of 31 August 1918, he led a charge within the Battle of Mont St Quentin, near Peronne.

This battle has been described as one of the most important battles in World War I and despite the overwhelming number of German troops, the Australian troops fought and took the hill at Mont St Quentin.

Sadly, my Great Uncle died instantly - shot in the temple by a machine gun bullet.

However, he died a brave man. A man to make his family and his country very proud.

His gravestone had a very touching and special message -

A big Australian

A good son

A grand man

We will meet him later on.

I was unaware of these words, however, they were very touching and my father was very proud of these words when I told him on our return to Britain.

Following this, we visited the memorial dedicated to the brave men who fought at Mont St Quentin.

Apparently there was a more aggressive memorial depicting a soldier destroying a German eagle. However, in World War II, the Germans retook the area and destroyed this statue.

Fortunately, now, the memorial is a simple statue of a digger - far better and more representative of Australia than the previous statue.

The next day was Anzac Day and along with several thousand other Australians, Samantha and I attended the Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneaux Australian War Memorial.

This was again, very poignant and we are proud to have visited the area, first and foremost, proud secondly that we participated in the 2nd Dawn Service in France on the Western Front and finally, proud to have visited the site of my Great Uncles grave and where he fell, serving his country and flegling nation.