Vimy Ridge

This morning we drove 260k's from Ypres in Belgium

to Reims in France.

We stopped along the way at to visit the memorial at Vimy Ridge.

The Canadian Corps were ordered to seize Vimy Ridge in April 1917.

Situated in northern France, the heavily-fortified seven-kilometre

ridge held a commanding view over the Allied lines.

To capture this difficult position, the Canadians

carefully planned and rehearsed their attack.

Attacking together for the first time, the four Canadian divisions

stormed the ridge at 5:30am on 9 April 1917.

Three days of costly battle delivered final victory.

The Canadian operation was an important success.

But it was victory at a heavy cost:

3,598 Canadians were killed and another 7,000 wounded.

The capture of Vimy was more than just an important battlefield victory.

For the first time all four Canadian divisions attacked together:

men from all regions of Canada were present at the battle.

Brigadier-General A.E. Ross declared after the war,

“in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.”

Vimy became a symbol for the sacrifice of the young Dominion.

In 1922, the French government ceded to Canada

in perpetuity Vimy Ridge, and the land surrounding it.

The gleaming white marble and haunting sculptures

of the Vimy Memorial, unveiled in 1936,

stand as a terrible and poignant reminder of the 11,285

Canadian soldiers killed in France who have no known graves.

Canada’s impressive tribute to those Canadians

who fought and gave their lives in the First World War

is majestic, inspiring and overlooks the Douai Plain

from the highest point of Vimy Ridge.

The Memorial took eleven years to build.

Its towering pylons and sculptured figures contain almost

6,000 tonnes of limestone brought to the site

from an abandoned Roman quarry on the Adriatic Sea

(in present day Croatia).

Twenty sculpted, symbolic figures grace the monument,

each carved where they now stand from huge blocks of limestone.

The largest, a mourning figure known as Canada Bereft,

was carved from a single 30-tonne block.

Head bowed in sorrow, she provides a powerful representation

of Canada, a young nation grieving her dead.

Overlooking the Douai Plain, she gazes down upon a symbolic tomb

draped in laurel branches and bearing a helmet and sword.

Carved on the walls of the monument are the names

of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France

and whose final resting place was then unknown.

The twin white pylons, one bearing the maple leaves of Canada,

the other the fleur-de-lys of France,

symbolise the sacrifices of both countries.

At the top are figures representing Peace and Justice;

below them on the back of the pylons are the figures

representing Truth and Knowledge.

At the base of the sculpture is a young dying soldier,

the spirit of sacrifice,

and the torch bearer is a reference to

the lines in John McCrae's poem

'To you from failing hands we throw

The torch, be yours to hold in high'

At the base of the Memorial,
 these words appear in French and in English:

TO THE VALOUR OF THEIR COUNTRYMEN IN THE GREAT WAR

AND IN MEMORY OF THEIR SIXTY THOUSAND DEAD T

HIS MONUMENT IS RAISED BY THE PEOPLE OF CANADA.

Nearby a state-of-the-art Canadian Visitors Centre

opened in April this year. We were very impressed

by the exhibits.

You can also visit a section of trenches and tunnels

that have been reconstructed in the same positions

 as the original Canadian and

 German outpost lines of 1917. At some points,

the opposing trenches were only 25 metres apart.

…........................................................................................................

We arrived in Reims this afternoon. 
It's the unofficial capital of the Champagne

 wine-growing region, and many of the well-known 
champagne houses are headquartered here.

We settled into our hotel, it has a beautiful art deco exterior 
but it goes downhill from there! 
Only three people can fit into the lift at once...
and even that would be very cosy. 
Our room is PURPLE and I really mean PURPLE!

We're only here for 2 nights and it will be fine.

It didn't take long before I was sampling
 a glass of Veuve Clicquot.

Today we walked 12.9 k's