Hotel Central&Anzac Amiens

... spread across a few canals and into the University district of the city. Each new area of development connected back to the same square with the cathedral which I though was amazing. From every small walkway, road or canal you were either lead to a green space or an axis to the cathedral square.

We walked around the university district only to get very awkward glances from the french students. Quickly we left and observed the rest of the redevelopment ...

... called Villers-Bretonneux. Some may have heard about it. It was where the commonwealth troops held ground against the Germans. Australia lost thousands of young souls on the site of this village, and so it has become a commonwealth war grave, but mostly for the Australian soldiers lost. The village is actually a sister-village to Robinvale in Australia. The townsfolk love Australians, and it can be seen around the tiny place. Restaurants named Kangaroo, Australian flags ...

... as the bus felt like any regular coach bus in the US, you’d look out the window and realize with a jolt that you’re in a totally different country. It’s great to be sketching the historical buildings I’ve read about for years. I mean, I love the Illini Union and all, but it just doesn’t have the same kind of pull that an ancient cathedral does.

This trip also marked the end of our orientation period ...

... glass, a labyrinth on the floor, and lots of inner chapels. It also felt a lot taller inside, because there are only three divisions and the first is so stretched. There were a ton of tourist groups here, and we had a lot of onlookers while sketching, which was pretty strange. We left the cathedral at about 2 (weddings were starting at 3, collective awwwwww from the girls in our group), and took a walking tour around the rest of the city. Amiens was greatly damaged ...

... a game of volleyball, luckily we were not able to get up and hit him.

The two Dave's went to wash up after tea and found a french orphan trapped in a bath. wait for the photos!

Having been harrassed for not updating the blog (we were busy) we are now sat around the light of a laptop, with 3 mobile phones charging, linked to the internet - whilst sipping port.

Hopefully pictures will follow.

... and wait for Jane to arrive from London...and she got there at midnight, with our last train leaving for our apartment at 12:30pm. A bit tight

This morning Sue and I went for a bike ride. LIved on the edge, no helmets, wrong way up one way raods...

Lots of fun

xx

... A couple of stories came out, but one stood out in particular. The notorious Ned Kelly was arrested by Hugh Bracken, but during WW1, his son James, fought alongside Ned's nephew Frederick Foster. They were both killed here, and their names lie on the wall close to each other. These are the kind of stories I love about that time. The cameraderie that existed, even when past family members had been enemies, but were ...

... The bugler was really good as well, he was from the army but not sure what unit. Minter was also here with a tour group, so we got to see him too. We made a big hot breakfast for us and Dave and Louise, said good bye and then headed off to see some of the other war memorials. The best being the South African one, it was set in a sort of forest and with the way the light was being filtered through the trees it made it quite eerie. We also had to visit the memorial at ...

... though because there's no real indication when you cross the borders; just a tiny sign. Seriously, crossing states lines in the US is a lot more obvious. One thing though, they have a lot better radio stations around Luxembourg than they do anywhere between Paris and Epinal. The station DJs speak German though so I didn't know what the heck they were saying. Other little roadtrip notes.... The speed limit in France is 110km/h, it ...

We spent the morning in the 'In Flanders Field' museum at Ypres which was extremely well designed and presented with the exception of some of the information cards being printed far too small for people to read comfortably. I believe that the BOSS has absorbed more information in the past day than she had in a full term at school when they studied WWI. We had one more day until we were due in Paris and as it was not worth going all the way ...