Day 8 Bayeux-Honfleur-Peronne-Arras 24 April 2018

It was an early start but before we left the town, we visited the Bayeux Cathedral.  It was here that William of Normandy (The Conqueror) had forced Harold to give allegiance to him.  It was an impressive church and one stained glass window was devoted to the liberation in 1944.  The town had escaped largely unscathed from the invasion.

Honfleur is an attractive seaside town located at the end of the Seine River, opposite the port of Le Harve where the river meets the English Channel.

Before we left Australia, Elizabeth and I researched one of her great uncles who had been “lost in France”.  We did well as we didn’t even have a first name. Norman Jones had served in the Light Horse on Gallipoli, convalesced in Cairo, returned briefly to Australia on sick leave and returned to serve on the Western Front in the Queensland 9^th Battalion.  He served until the last engagement of his unit of the war when he received multiple gun-shot wounds on September and died two days later.  His unit was withdrawn from the front line the next day and never saw combat again.  He served for so long, only to fall at the last hurdle.

He is buried at the La Chapalette British-Indian Cemetery just south of Peronne, under the shade of a spreading Chestnut tree. We thought we knew his location in the cemetery but the cemetery was divided into two, non-Christians on one side and Christians on the other. Elizabeth placed a woven poppy on his grave, donated by Sue in our group. We had a little service where we all recited the Ode. It was quite moving.

Peronne Museum and lunch. The exhibition was a little more complete since we had been there but it was one of our better museums that we had visited and had invested in technology.  A couple of our party spoke to the Defence Minister Marise Payne and her entourage whom we later ran into at the 2^nd Australian Division monument at Mont St. Quentin where she laid a wreath.

We arrive in Arras for our hotel for the next few nights at Trois Luppars (Three Leopards), which is right on the Great Market Square.  The weather has remained overcast but with no showers so we have been extremely lucky up too this point in time.