We bid adieu to England and caught the Eurostar from St. Pancras Station in London to Paris. But, visiting Paris had to wait, we had a date with history. Our car rental pickup (a Reneault Elf) was right at the station where we got off the train, so we headed north to Amiens to meet up with John Hetherington, his wife Donna and their battlefield tour group. (Battlefields of Europe)

We were late arriving in Amiens and went straight to bed so we’d be able to function for the tour the next day. John and his group met us near their hotel and we followed the bus toward Vimy. Along the way we stopped at a few WW1 cemeteries, and at each stop John had a story to tell.

I think what made the three days we spent with John so great, was the personal touch he added. There was a man named Gord on the tour, who’s great uncle fought in several battles during WW1 and ended up being killed there. John, Gord and Gord’s wife, Judy, did a ton of research before the trip and found out where his uncle fought and where he was buried. John brought the group to the cemetery where he was buried and told the story of Gord’s uncle’s WW1 journey. It was almost like you could look across the field and see the soldiers in the trenches, see them advancing, see them fighting for survival. Looking over the vast number of white headstones in the Commonwealth Cemeteries is quite a soul shaking experience. Hearing the details of battle, the letters home and the conditions that the soldiers experienced was a history lesson we will never forget.

We travelled on to Vimy Ridge and the Vimy Ridge Memorial. When we arrive John told us all about the battle to take Vimy Ridge. He had trench maps, photos and war diaries. He explained how the generals came up with the plan, the logistics behind it and how it was carried out. I swear you could almost see it. We walked through old trenches, saw blast craters and went inside German bunkers. There is simply no other way to see these places. I’m married to a guy who knows some stuff about history, and I’ve taken history classes, but there is no comparison.

Leaving Vimy we headed to Ypres, Belgium which is near where the Passchendaele battles took place. The hotel we were in was right on the town square which was exactly how you might picture an old fashioned town square. Cobblestone streets, stores & restaurants, a huge church, and the Cloth Hall (which is where they used to buy and sell wool back in the day), All of this is just steps away from the Menin Gate (a war memorial dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown – I got this from Wikipedia because I didn’t want to screw it up). My description won’t do it justice so here’s a photo (our photo wasn’t this good, so I found this one, because again, it’s one of those things you feel like you need to give the respect it deserves).

There is a Last Post ceremony here EVERY night!! We were able to see it; very moving. There were hundreds of people there and apparently it’s like that all the time.

Our last stop with John and his group was near Calais, France. John asked the girls if they wanted to ride on the bus with them whole we followed. They jumped at the chance to be co-pilots with Eric the bus driver. Plus, they got to eat the fresh pasta lunch the group was having on the bus. It was a beautiful clear day and just before we arrived at our stop we crested a hill, and there it was, the English Channel with the White Cliffs of Dover gleaming in the distance.

The site we stopped at was called the Todt Battery; it was built by the Germans during WW2 to defend the coast. By this point my brain was in history overload and I was thinking to myself that maybe Mark and the girls should just drop me off somewhere to look at the ocean and read a book while they got their fill (because let me tell you, I’m the odd one out in this family). But once I saw the size of the battery and the number of bunkers and other structures up and down the coast it was hard to resist exploring and learning about how they were built and used.

The battery was restored by a French family over the years and has an amazing collection of all kinds of WW2 memorabilia. There were propaganda posters, uniforms, supply kits and weapons (so many guns and bombs from both the Germans and the Allies).

When we finished here it was time to say goodbye to John, Donna and the rest of the group, they were headed on to Dieppe and we were picking up Neve at the airport in Paris the next day and had to get to the place in the Normandy countryside we had booked for the next 3 days. We couldn’t have asked for a better 3 days of history lessons for the girls (and us!!). When we were originally planning our trip these places were included in our itinerary, but seeing them on our own couldn’t have compared to the experience we had with John. There have been other historical sites we’ve visited since we parted ways and more than once one of us has said “I wonder if John knows about this place?” or “I wish John were here to tell us more about….”