Vive La France! (Part 2 - Arras and Vimy)

After spending Monday afternoon in Rouen, B and I hopped on to a train to Arras and got there early evening. There are two large squares in central Arras (Grand'Place and Place des Héros) which was where our hotel was, so our location couldn't have been better. We took a bit of a walk around Arras that evening, had dinner, and got well rested for our trip to Vimy on Remembrance Day.

The Vimy Memorial really is incredible, and that's putting it mildly. It was closed for a couple of years since it was starting to deteriorate, but the reconstruction they did really paid off, and it looks amazing. Most of the problems were design flaws in the original design, but some modern day engineering modifications have sorted out things like ventilation, the expansion of the stones, and it should be in good shape for a very long time to come.

One thing we didn't realize at the time we planned our trip was that the official Vimy ceremony happens on the Sunday prior to Remembrance Day, which is where you would see all the diplomats, politicians and crowds. In the end, I'm actually kind of glad we went on Tuesday, since it allowed us to actually be there without tons of people around. We had a short little ceremony at 11am with about 75 people. After spending some time around the monument for the rest of the morning, we headed back to the visitor centre and signed up for a tour of the tunnels, which lead from the front line at Vimy Ridge to well over a mile away, where the reserves would have been stationed.

The next day, we did a little shopping and wandering around Arras before catching the train back to Paris, and flying back home.

So, check out the slideshow by clicking on the monument below! (Plain photo set is here for the less slideshow-inclined.