Adventures in Europe: Vimy Ridge, France

I left Ieper after that Last Post ceremony and drove to Lens, France, about an hour southeast.  I spent the night there in a budget hotel, of which I had very low expectations.  I was quite pleased with it in the end, although its bathroom reminded me of a bathroom on a cruise ship.

This morning I drove to Vimy Ridge for Remembrance Day.

I passed countless cyclists on my way there, and soon realized that for the French, at least in that part of France, Remembrance or Armistice Day (or whatever they know it as) equates to get out and do recreational things day.  There were countless joggers at the Vimy Ridge park, as well.

I got there around 9:30, early enough that I had the monument to myself for a few minutes.

It was sure a lot larger than I imagined (I could see it from many kilometres down the highway), but the size of the park was what really surprised me.

Also, much of the land has been relatively undisturbed since the war (other than reforesting, so the ground is still pockmarked with shell holes and such, and much of it is closed to people due to the danger of undetonated explosives (although sheep roam freely, grazing on the very lush grass).

At 11:00 there was a very simply ceremony held at the foot of the monument.

Vimy Ridge had held a ceremony on Sunday, as well, which was the "official" ceremony, and this one was much less formal, and organized by the Vimy Ridge student guides.  I am still surprised that there was an official ceremony on Sunday, and not today, and I am especially surprised that the Remembrance Day ceremony at Vimy Ridge is left in the hands of a handful of university students, most of whom have no connection to the military or World War I (one of them did have the name of a great-greatuncle on the memorial).  The ceremony was nice, however, just nothing compared to what had occurred at the Menin Gate the night prior.  Most of all I had hoped for a flyover, but there was nothing close to that dramatic, although one of the guides pulled out a guitar and did an amazing job of singing a song called "The Green Fields of France," which I had never heard before but was very good.