Dawn service at Villers-Brettoneux (Val found her friend Jennifer with her mother Heather, and another former school friend wwho she knew was going to be there .... in a crowd of 4000. Hundreds of coaches (the only way to get in, apart from a 3-4 km walk from the nearest town), lined up on a single lane extremely narrowcountry road acoss unfenced open fields. That sight in itself was an experience. Then on to Le Hamel (Australian and American battle honours) for breakfast, through Peronne (another town gratefully appreciative of Australian soldiers during WW1), and then to the Australian monument at Bullecourt.
And here lies a fantastic story. French history taught in schools gave little recognition to Bullecourt. After all, the main batlle for French forces was Verdun, so that naturally was then centre of WW1 for the French. However, in the early 1980s, at the little school in Bullecourt, children were frequentlybrining to school little pieces of Australian oriented memoribilia which haad been dug up in the fields(rising sun army hat badges, etc) and asking the teacher what theyy were, how they came to be there, etc. The teacher, Monsieur Claude Durand decided to pursue this, and wrote to the Australian ambassador for France. He was subsequently promised some in formation about Australia's involvement around Bullecourt, and was sent Charles Bean's history of World War, comprehensive and detailed but difficult to read at the best of times (12 volumes), let alone if you have limited English.
M. Durand, with the school, decided to research the history, and raise funds for the erection of the monument to the Australians who fought. Now days, the same official party of French and Australian dignitaries who participated in the Villers-Brettoneux dawn service, repeat that service in the afternoon at the church in Bullecourt (this time in French) then march 1km or so to the memorial just out of town for wreath laying.
M. And Mme. Durand were awarded Order of Australia Medals because of their work.
Today, I (Greg) met and spoke to Mme. Durand. We had a 10 min or so conversation, she even gave her email address in case anyone we know wanted to contact her (for example, apparently it's not uncommon for someone to want a prayer said at a grave site for a special occassion - the soldiers birthday, anniversary of death, etc). She would try to oblige. What a fabulous woman (bit choked up here just writing about it).
I (Val) saw a lady walking towards the memorial wearing a large gold medal - I didn't recognise it as an Order of Australia Medal. Then on to ..... home. Well, to Lille anyway. Our tour was over, but some on the bus had only just started.
Overnight in Lille, then a 7am TGV high speed train departure for Avignon (4 hour train trip, what would otherwise take 8+ hours by car!).
Arrived at Villers-Brettoneux at 4.30am with the memorial floodlit in the background. Carrying coats not wearing them because not as cold as expected. Temp did drop as the morning drew nearer, feet very cold from the wet grass.
Cross of Sacrifice at floodlit memorial at Villers-Brettoneux (or as they signpost in France : Villers-Bx)
After the service, this is all the people waiting for their coaches. It was a narrow, single lane country road. Coaches could only go one way, single file. Three or four coaches would pull up, load their passengers, move away for the next lot of coaches. There were probably 150-200 coaches involved. In the distance, in the right background, you can make out the last 2 coaches queued up. They've probably got about 2 kms to go, by road, to get to the memorial site
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