Café de l’Erable

We went just along the road to Milk and Sugar for breakfast; a very nice café in Ypres which is so popular that you have to book for breakfast. Then we set off about an hour and a quarter south towards the Somme to visit Loos and Vimy Ridge. Having to retrace our journey south to visit that part of the Western front is the price we have paid for spending three nights in Ypres instead of moving hotels, and I think it has been good to base ourselves here, although we were all very tired by time we got back at 6.30 p.m.

It was David’s idea to visit the Memorial at Loos (pronounced “Loss.”) The Battle of Loos took place from 25th September to 8th October 1915, and despite the British using poison gas (for the first time) and bombarding the German trenches by artillery fire, the Germans were mostly able to hold their positions and the British, Commonwealth soldiers and French suffered huge losses. Again a sad and in this case unsuccessful battle. 

We then pressed on to Vimy Ridge, which we have visited before. On the way we stopped for lunch at Café de l’Erable, a small French bar and restaurant where all of the customers seemed to know each other and there was only one choice on the menu; steak and chips (I had chips only!) The steak was very rare but James, Davie and Chanel ate it bravely and with enjoyment. We wondered what Erable meant so I looked it up later; it means Maple, which of course makes sense because it’s very close to the Vimy Ridge Visitor Centre which is Canadian. We had a tour of the tunnels from a friendly Canadian student, one of fifteen who work in the Visitor Centre. The Vimy Ridge is very memorable because you can see trenches and shell holes all the way up to the striking white twin columns of the memorial at the top of the slope. 

We then set off back towards Ypres, an hour in sometimes quite busy traffic. Our final stop before going back to the hotel was the very interesting Yorkshire trench which is in an industrial estate and was excavated in the 1990s. It’s a small section of trenches and very interesting because it was completely undisturbed until its excavation so it was like a time capsule full of artefacts. 

We all had a rest at the hotel and met downstairs for drinks before another delicious dinner at one of the restaurants in the town square.