Amiens

After such a warm and sunny day I was surprised to hear it raining hard during the night. We woke to fresh blue skies and sunshine and had another delicious and huge breakfast. The owner of L’Histoire de L’Eclair, Annick, told us about the history of the house which is more than eight hundred years old! 

The owner of the house in the Middle Ages was a tailor, and he also rented out rooms. He rented out a room to a handsome foreigner who caught the eye of his two daughters. One of the girls had a fiancé, the local baker, who was jealous of the stranger, so one night he followed him. The stranger went down to the canal (which in those days went under the house) and mysteriously stayed out all night. The two sisters went into the stranger’s room one night while he was gone and found that he had left his trousers behind. The trousers had no opening at the front and a hole at the back; this led them to believe that he was the Devil and the hole at the back was for his tail! The family kept the discovery of the trousers quiet because they did not want their fellow townsfolk to think that they were in league with the Devil, so they tried to burn them. But instead their house was set ablaze (presumably by the vengeful Devil.) The baker fiancé kindly sold pastries to raise money for the restoration of the house, the stranger / Devil never returned, and they all lived happily ever after. Outside the house, there is a carving on the wall deputing the two girls holding the Devil’s trousers! 

Annick then took us down to see the cellars of the house which they are carefully restoring; the intricate brickwork is absolutely beautiful. 

Our next destination was south to the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme, near Amiens. We looked  around the informative small museum, and then we walked the short distance to the memorial. It was very quiet and this made it particularly moving. Onwards to Amiens where I had booked a boat tour of the Hortillonages, which we first visited in 2018 with Heather and Ewan, and where a scene near the beginning of Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes is set. We arrived at the place where the boat tours depart only to find out that I had somehow booked with a different company! I hadn’t realised that there was more than one company! Luckily this was only five minutes along the road and we got there in time. It turned out to be a one boat company run by the very pleasant and handsome Rémi. He is taking delivery of another boat next week (and presumably will be employing someone to drive it.) The tour was an hour long, fifteen minutes longer than the other company, and it was excellent. We were pleased to get the boat to ourselves (plus Rémi!) because I reckon that there was room for eight. It was so peaceful and quiet; we saw moorhens and ducks and coots, and we saw a jay fly past us. Davie and Chanel, who had watched the Birdsong mini series in preparation, thought the boat trip was very enjoyable. 

We checked into the Mercure hotel which is very central, in fact we have a splendid view of Amiens Cathedral from our balconies, and had a brief rest before separately going for a wander. James and I looked round the Cathedral which is huge (twice as big inside as Notre Dame de Paris) and then had a pre-dinner drink in a nearby pub with Davie and Chanel. 

Our dinner, to which Davie and Chanel insisted on treating us, was at Restaurant Le Quai (recommended by Rémi), and it was splendid. What a lovely final evening of our holiday. 

A sunny day in Bruges

A copious continental breakfast lay in wait for us on the 1st floor of the b&b, served by Nicoletta. The b&b is called L’Histoire de L’Eclair. Our rooms are up under the eaves of this traditional old house just around the corner from the main square; the rooms are very pretty with huge beams crossing just above our heads. During breakfast Chopin’s Marche Funèbre was playing, quite a coincidence because Davie had been talking about it the day before. Then when we were getting ready to go out, the church bells were chiming from all directions and one of them was ringing the tune Over the Rainbow. How lovely. This continued on and off throughout the day, with a medley of Abba tunes while we were having coffee on the open air balcony of the town museum. Before that we went on a canal boat trip which gave us very pretty views as we passed lots of church towers and buildings with stepped gables. 

The weather was very warm and sunny, and people that we spoke to assured us that it is the best day of weather that they have had since last summer! After coffees and teas in the pub above the Historium, sitting out in on the balcony overlooking the main square we went for a long and extremely pleasant walk through the streets of Bruges, enjoying the slight breeze which stopped the warm day from being completely sweltering. We had lunch in ‘t Nieuw Walnutje sitting outside in the little square in the warm sunshine, and it was absolutely idyllic. Our next activity was a tour of the De Halve Maan Brewery, an excellent suggestion of Davie and Chanel’s. We were told by our enthusiastic tour guide that beer has been brewed at its location for approximately 500 years. The current brewery has been run by the Maes family since 1856. In 2016 they constructed a 3.3 km underground beer pipeline to connect the brewery with the new bottling plant on the outskirts of the town. We had good views from the roof and James, Davie and Chanel enjoyed a beer at the end of the tour. 

More adventures were to come. We climbed up the 800 year old Bell Tower in time for the 7 p.m. chimes, which were very loud! From the top we could see all the way to Zeebrugge. Then we had dinner in a pretty restaurant, where James, Davie and Chanel had mussels (not the best ones they have had, they all agreed) and I had asparagus à la Belge, and then we all had drinks sitting outside the lively Café Pick near the main square. Even though it was dark it was still warm. 

From Ypres to Bruges

Today we bade farewell to Ypres and headed north east to Ghent. I was very keen to see Jan (and Hubert) van Eyck’s Lamb of God Altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral, and the other three kindly joined me in my enthusiasm. James and I learned about this in our course on the Northern Renaissance last autumn, and it was incredible to visit it. We parked in an underground car park right in the centre of Bruges and walked to the cathedral. We could hear church bells ringing and Davie recognised it as Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major by Franz Liszt. I recognised the tune too and was very impressed that Davie knew who had composed it. I had booked tickets for the Cathedral tour; it was augmented reality which meant that the VR images were superimposed on the real background of the cathedral crypt, which I liked. It was very informative, about both the details and the history of the much stolen altarpiece, and I was so excited to be there. At the end of the tour we saw the actual altarpiece and it was bigger and brighter than I had anticipated, I loved it. It’s the most stolen artwork in history - by Napoleon and Hitler among others! Interestingly, one of the two panels which were stolen in 1934 has never been found, and the person who stole it is long dead. Before they died they implied that it is hidden in a public place; we were all speculating about where it might be. 

After a light lunch we continued our journey onwards to Bruges. 

Bruges is as lovely as ever and it has been our sunniest and warmest day of the holiday yet. We started our evening with drinks at De Vloamse Trine, discovered by Davie and Chanel in a little square just round the corner from our quaint b&b, and it was so pleasant that we ended up staying there for dinner. We had a fun evening of chat and a great deal of laughter, finishing with a night time walk around the Market Square.  

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. 

Ypres, Tyne Cot and Langemark

Rain was forecast in the morning so this was a good opportunity to visit the In Flanders Fields Museum in the Cloth Hall in Ypres. After a tasty breakfast in a café we went to the museum; it's such a detailed and comprehensive museum. We made our way through the different exhibits and then headed up to the bell tower. As we emerged onto the roof the sun came out from behind the clouds, lighting up the town and illuminating the golden dragon weather vane on the spire. After coffees and teas in the museum café we set off by car to Tyne Cot cemetery and from there to Langemark German cemetery. Both were sobering experiences, and it’s difficult to comprehend the huge numbers of dead young soldiers. Tyne Cot is huge with nearly 12,000 Commonwealth soldiers buried or commemorated there, but I hadn’t realised that the smaller (in geographical size) Langemark cemetery has more than 44,000 soldiers. It seems smaller because 25000 of the dead are in a mass grave and also the graves contain multiple bodies rather than one per grave. It’s very sad. 

Back in Ypres we had a drink at the cosy Ypra pub before Davie and Chanel laid their wreath during the Menin Gate ceremony. The actual Menin Gate is currently undergoing renovation so the ceremonies take place on the adjoining bridge. The ceremony was solemn and moving and when I saw Davie and Chanel move forward with their wreath my eyes filled with tears. As we discussed later, it’s so important to remember the war dead, and also to hope that lessons can be learned. 

We had a lovely dinner and also a great chat about science and education and languages and all sorts. 

Back to Belgium

This morning James, Davie, Chanel and I boarded our 10.35 flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. We flew over London (but more to the west than Ally and Cat’s flat in Limehouse) and then passed over a long sandy beach with white capped waves and over the Channel. It wasn’t long before we started descending to Paris. After the usual footering about collecting our luggage and hire car (a smart BMW 3 series) we set off northwards towards Ypres. We stopped at Fins New British Cemetery north of the Somme to pay our respects to James’ Great Uncle Hugh and all of the other young British and German soldiers who are buried there. Then we drove the short distance to the St Quentin Canal at Honnecourt sur l’Escaut, where Hugh was wounded a couple of weeks before he died in a field hospital in October 2018. It’s James’ and my fourth visit to the 1st World War battlefields of France and Belgium, David’s second visit * and Chanel’s first (although she has visited Belgium before, with her Dad.) Our first visit was in 2009 with Ally and Davie (Jamie was already at university so could not accompany us.) We have visited with Heather and Ewan in 2018, with Ally and Cat in 2019, and we are keen to hand on the baton of the family history to our children and their partners. We are so lucky that they are all interested in History. 

Onwards another hour and a half to Ypres, we were all excited when we crossed the Belgian border. Ypres is as pretty as ever despite the damp weather; we are pleased with the smart and well appointed Ariane Hotel, and after checking in we went out for a tasty dinner at In’t Klein Stadhuis which is tucked into the corner of the village square beside the Cloth Hall. My cheese croquettes were delicious and I am assured by my three fellow travellers that the Flemish stew was excellent. 

* David and I also visited Ypres very briefly with the Duncanrig music department in 2013. 

A Spring weekend in Glasgow

On Saturday Heather and I had our afternoon tea at the House for an Art Lover. It was delicious and we were so full! This was my birthday present for Heather and Ewan. We had time for a short walk around the walled garden, which was looking spring-like with daffodils, crocuses and forsythia. We headed into Glasgow and parked at Concert Square and had a quick browse around John Lewis before meeting James and Ewan at the Tap Room in West Nile Street. A convivial afternoon and evening followed, and we sensibly didn’t make it too late a night, mindful of the clocks going forward during the night, therefore losing us an hour of sleep. I insisted on giving Heather and Ewan a lift home and when we got to the car park I handed James what I thought was the parking ticket so that we could enter. It turned out that I had accidentally handed him an old train ticket, which I thought was very funny! 

We woke to an absolutely beautiful morning on Sunday and while James went for his customary big walk, I hastened over to David Lloyd where I had a lovely outdoor swim and then a spa. I then met James at the Finnieston for lunch; it’s very much a fish restaurant and the vegetarian choices were a bit limited. We had a nice time and then headed home to relax with our kitties.