Deutsches Abenteuer: France

We left Hallines, headed for our second BnB in Buire-Courcelles, about 120 km away as the crow flies. A goodly way, though, given that I'm driving very slowly, we are avoiding huge freeways with tolls, and the nature of driving in France. Speed limit through towns and villages here is 50 km/h. At the end of the village, the limit jumps up to 90 km/h......often for about 50 metres. Then 70 km/h for another 50 metres, then you're in the next village and you're down to 50 km/h again. Sometimes you get the end-of-village-speed-limit sign on top of the beginning-of-next-village-speed-limit sign! Consequently, without using freeways, it's difficult to travel swiftly, which is okay with us as we like to look around a bit.

It was just before 1pm when we saw the huge ruined towers on a nearby ridge. We quickly decided that here would be a good place for lunch.

View over surrounding countryside

Our picnic lunch, with a nice backdrop

The abbey at Mont-St-Eloi was at its greatest strength around the 13th century. After the French Revolution in 1792, the abbots were executed, the furniture was sold and most of the abbey was demolished. The Allies were using the remaining towers as watchtowers in the war, so the Germans bombed them in 1918 and destroyed the tops.

The local church (we were actually looking for toilets)

It was by now very hot and extremely humid, so a quick change of attire was needed. Then back on the road, headed for Buissy and the Queant Road Cemetery, where we would find Tom Bell Hogg.

Surrounded by wheat fields on all sides

Some other notable headstones:

One for you, Dad

A headstone without a cross, presumably by choice

Partially identified, but no names

A soldier and a sailor

More soldiers "believed to be buried in this cemetery"

Lovely, stripey snail

Two plaques and several headstones on the sides of the cemetery, memorialising some soldiers who were initially buried in German cemeteries, but whose graves were lost or destroyed.

Onwards once more. As we were driving through Bapaume, Caelli recognised the turn-off to the tiny, hidden Australian cemetery, so we paid a little visit to say hello to another Creswick son, whom we first found in 2013.

Allan Leslie Whitfield

A German buried in the middle of the Aussies. The shape of the headstone is different

"An unknown German warrior"

And an Arabic soldier

Driving through Peronne I saw a sign for an Australian Memorial, so we made a quick stop. This tribute to the Australian Second Division was because they took Peronne back from the Germans on the 2nd of September, 1918. A critical defensive position, Mont-St-Quentin was considered impregnable, and the Australians' success was described as "the greatest military achievement of the war".

Our accommodation for the next three nights is the Moulin de Binard, an old mill. Parts of it date from the 16th century, but much of it was destroyed in the war, and no-one is quite certain of anything. There is no mill wheel remaining. Four double rooms, a donkey, a goose, half a dozen peacocks, a couple of dozen chooks, a dog and several cats were part of the attraction of this BnB.