I arrived in Verdun today, tuesday 27 may after two days and 120 km. This took me from Nancy (and the 'protection' of the Maillets), across the Moselle and up onto the Lorraine plain through endless small villages and fields of blue green wheat and pale green barley and a sprinkling of rape, oats and barley. This is the granary of France. The Wimmera with a scale difference and more rain! It is sad that the villages look a bit lifeless but perhaps they have always been slow. I camped at lac de madine last night and it rained all night. Fortunately not before the tent went up! Today was drizzly but it now looks like clearing up. I have taken a hotel tonight and probably tomorrow and then more camping as I heqd east.
Tomorrow, i will visit the Verdun first war sites. Verdun is located on the Meuse River and is bounded on the eastern side by an escarpment that is q natural defence against attackfrom the east. I know because rode up this escarpment! It is here in 1915, 1916 and 1917 that major battles were fought and over one million French and Germans died. Such a waste!
i had a problem with my derailler but i got help from a bikeshop in Verdun. It was q minor problem and shows how impractical this engineer is! Overall, the Mongoose is going well, touch wood!
If you see a strange 'q' it should be an 'a'. Boy i hate this French keyboard!
c'est tout e au revoir.
Maybe, just maybe, this is the year of the Magpie!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Awesome, good to hear everything's going well Dad. Post up some pictures though! I've heard that it's a 1:1000 ratio for pictures to words, so that'd save you an awful amount of typing if you uploaded a pic or two!
Dad, that's so exciting! I hope you're taking heaps of photos, even if you don't upload them. I'm very jealous! You'll be pleased to hear that the house has never looked so organised and tidy! i stocked the pantry and fridge so I'm all set. The only problem is....oh wait, there isn't one! Miss you and your irrational grumblings...!
also, we lost to goulburn tonight. we are struggling....
The fields en route to Verdun sound really pretty, Dad. Hope you've taken lots of pictures of Verdun, I've always wanted to know what it looks like. When I was in Nancy, I remember a friend of Stephane's telling me how moved she was by the memorials there. It'd be interesting to compare the way young French people and young Australian people memorialise the war. I think we both have a pretty solemn approach (except for the types that sleep on gravestones in Gallipoli) but the consequent feelings about war and the military are probably somewhat different.
I will conduct an independent assessment of the Cedric St house. Can't rely on internal audits.
Post a Comment