Meeting Ross' Grandfather

We have had a wonderful stay in Belgium and are now with our friends, Lee- anne and John in Leran, France. Belgium was such an emotional and incredible experience with the village of Ypres completely ruined in the first world war and now rebuilt in the style of the original town. It does seem obvious that the village is rebuilt but it has become such a centre for the recognition of the war, not only with the Commonwealth troupes but also with the Germans. Part of our package from the Albion Hotel was two nights accommodation, a tour of the battlefields and a three course dinner at a local restaurant. The hotel was gorgeous, very classic with lovely gladiolies in beautiful vases everywhere.



Each night in Ypres the last post is held at 8.00pm. On our first night we were lucky to enjoy a beautiful school choir from Canada. Their incredible voices without musical instruments were very haunting and added to the poignant atmosphere of the service. Many different groups laid wreaths, army men and women, school groups and families coming to pay their respect.



The Menin Gate before the 8.00 pm service, a quiet place for reflection. At about 7.15, the crowds begin to gather. Luckily the Albion Hotel advised us to get there early to secure a place. We could not believe the size of the crowd that was there for both nights that we attended the ceremony of the last post.



The next day we went on the battlefields tour that was taken by a passionate English girl who has lived in the region for over 16 years. She was interested in all of her guests on the tour and made sure we all covered the areas we wanted to see. On our tour we had a New Zealand and a Canadian couple who were tracing the history of the war. The tour started with the explanation of the frontline, the Commonwealth and German armies were so close to each other and that the conflict lasted for over four years. She talked about life in the trenches and the use of gas, there was no glossing over in this tour, Jan explained how terrible the "the Great War" was. This photos shows the dug outs where the soldiers came in for medical treatment.


After this we visited many memorial sites for the different countries, New Zealand memorials are scattered around as the New Zealand government wanted their memorials built where the soldiers had fallen rather than altogether at the Menin Gate. 100,000 men from New Zealand went to war, out of population of 1,000,000, just over 30,000 returned. The statistics are shocking.

Part of the tour took us to Polygon Wood where Ross' grandfather was killed in action. Jan our tour guided gave us a poppy on a cross and recited the commemorative words for the returned soldiers. She was able to explain to us the conflict within the area and gave us some understanding of what Eric might have experienced in this terrible war.



The Australians who do not have a marked grave are recognised on the Menin Gate and this is where Ross' grandfather name appears, Eric Carter.
We visited him quite a few times over our stay, and did leave him with a poppy.



Our time, in Belgium was very emotional but we were able to still enjoy our time there, especially partaking in some rather delicious Blegium chocolate.


We also saw this wonderful suitcase in a shop window in Ypres, very hard to resist but absolutely no reason to buy it, other than it being just gorgeous!



We had an easy Air France flight to Toulouse, shuttle bus into the main train station and then a local train to arrive at Pamiers where John came to pick us up. Chez Furness will be the next blog entry, it is now time to relax enjoy the company of our wonderful friends in their very beautiful home.

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Location:Rue du Temple,Léran,France