Novotel - Amiens (Est)

... between the water bodies were the perfect place for the kids to run around. Another labyrinth at one of the parks entrances provided my class with some entertainment.

The designer of the park (whose name I forgot of course) was actually celebrated and awarded for her design. While we were there it was a beautiful day and there were tons of people jogging and playing. We didn't even see the entire place since its that big but I'm sure the recreational ...

... 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 ...

... our last day of freedom by checking out Paris's most famous market this Sunday, but we're definitely going to have to make return trips because I did not buy anything (shocking how regular this is becoming, it's really rather unsettling), and because there are so many stores to see - this place is HUGE. So that's going on my ever-growing list of things to do, but, as always, please keep me posted with any suggestions that you may have!

... 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 ...

At 8:30 Ade Elliot dropped us back in Calais and after a few photos we set off.

After about a mile we hit the first hill, Dave Starkey clocked 40.4 mph with brakes on! We pulled him out the hedge in no time at all, but he left a big hole.

We moved on at a good pace and as we went down into Bolougne Sur Mer Dave Shayler lost the spare pump off his bike, an old French lady was holding her head any crying so ...

We had a big day yesterday. We trained to Amiens from Paris (90 mins trip) and then another train to Villers-bretonneux. We then had a casual walk of 60 minutes along a country road to the war memorial. Met some other young aussies...very interesting but a tough walk.

Then back to ...

... waited for Dawn to come upon us, the site started to fill With Australians and French. As we waited, a cold wind blew through the memorial. It kind of made you think about what these guys went through 91 years ago, well maybe not as we could never imagine their horrors. At 05:00, Dawn service began. A procession of Australians spoke about the battle and the links with France. The Mayor of Villers-Bretonneux stated the ...

24/4-26/4 ANZAC day, if I had never joined the army reserves I would never have gotten up for a dawn service, not if my life depended on it. Now though, even when I am not being paid for it, I manage to get myself up at 3:30am to go. This year it was in France at a small place called Villiers bretneux, this is where the National Australian war memorial is. The name might ring a bell for a few of you (think back to history class) and it should, major battles were fought here ...

... enough time for Amiens, rumoured to have the most beautiful of all Gothic cathedrals...at least that's what my Art History professor always professed.    It was evening when we arrived, and much to our delight, this was no sleepy, boring town like Beauvais had been, but an aristocratic, bustling city.  We parked the car in the center of the town and marvelled on the ...

... get a map from them, which is very handy because Amiens does not have maps available on the internet. I decided to go for a walk, as I wanted to see Villers-Brettoneux and walked up the street from the hotel and see the front of the train station. I had walked almost 40 minutes that I never needed to. I wonder if that old man knew, and was just having his own fun. :)