See The World

with BILL'S EYES

There are two garden areas and they are separated by a road so a tunnel is used to funnel visitors to and from them.

Chateau du Madeleine

The main center piece structure at the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery.

A full spectrum of colour.

Day 29 and we organized ourselves to be on our way 'eventually' (It is meant to be a holiday after all) and the plan today is to make our way to Giverny and the Monet Gardens, then head to our final destination, a caravan park near Versailles.

As each day begins we know we are a day nearer the end of our adventure and it is interesting that the daily routine we have fallen into seems so natural and in many ways comfortable, so the thought of not having this comfortable feeling in the near future brings sad feelings to the surface.

As you will recall we have had some particularly interesting experiences with our supplied vehicle GPS so we have started to run Google Maps on our mobile and iPad in parallel with using the vehicle GPS. The trip from our overnight stay location to the gardens should only take half an hour but even with both devices going we stop to re-check our entries and have them agree on the route to take. 

Our most recent Grand Daughter's name is Madeline and why am I telling you this? 

Well I pull over to the side of the narrow road to allow us to examine the devices and discuss the route we need to take, and when we look out of the van to our right we see a very imposing Chateau. It must have been 300 to 400 meters back from the road and at least 3 stories high in some places and wings to either side of what we could see, so my estimation is that there are about 30 to 40 rooms and I am sure there would be other houses elsewhere on such a property. We are parked just past the front gate so Lee gets out to take some better pictures down the driveway and what does she find? The name of this place is Chateau du Madeleine. Happenstance is an interesting thing.

We then arrive at the vicinity of the Monet Gardens and are immediately surprised, but should not have been, at the large number of vehicles including a large numbers of CamperVans and are able to park in the last available CamperVan spot, whew. 

We then think that we should have pre-purchased our entry tickets and try in vain to purchase them online. Oh well, into the waiting line we go and note that it will be about 40 minutes just getting in. I try again using our mobile WiFi facility as we would be waiting anyway and this time we have success.

Off the main waiting line and to another one specifically for those with pre-purchased tickets and we are in.

Well the gardens are thick with flowers and people but the layout and the blocked off corridors between plantings allow for most of our pictures to just comprise flowers and the bushes. We walk along the corridors and each step provides bursts of colour and every second step another picture opportunity. 

Lee would know the names of most of the flowers but I just try to take it all in, but the types of flowers included: irises in bloom; tulips; peonys; pansies; violets; forget-me-nots; rhodendrens; camellias; azaleas; crab-apple trees, zinnias; Japanese wind flowers; daisies of all types and colours; clematis vines; geraniums; holly hocks; delphiniums; roses but not flowering; and garlic flowers. The sheer volume of types of flowers, with their attendant colours, shape, and the arrays of foliage which never seem to repeat, are a sight to behold.

It is of course exactly this type of awe that inspired the painter Monet and others, although if you are familiar with the Monet style, the impressionistic view of this garden portrayed in his paintings may explain how futile it might have been, in his mind, to paint a replica of the beauty he saw.

Of course the lilly pond and bridge picture by Monet is very well known and everyone wants to see, photograph, and walk on the bridge, take selfies including the bridge, and of course pictures of couples and families on, in front of, behind the bridge and with the bridge in the background of the aforesaid combinations. Confusing - well so it was for the gaggle of people, all wanting to do all these things at the same time. Although very polite they all were, and of course, Lee helping out as usual, by taking pictures of couples and families with their camera.

Unfortunately for us it was not the season for Lilly's but the wisteria was in full bloom as it luxuriantly spread across the landscape and became a welcome backdrop and sometimes foreground for many pictures. A poor substitute for the real paintings but affordable for the masses.

We took many pictures and not many will be discarded. However, I wonder sometimes exactly what the masses get from a visit to such an iconic place with hundreds of people all trying to get their own pictorial impression of the place. Do they buy souvenirs that depict the garden at its prime without pesky tourists in frame? Do they enjoy the walk toe-to-toe while straining to take the perfect picture? Do they calmly contemplate the surroundings, blocking out the hubbub and store the memory for future contemplative times? I suppose this is a personal matter and we should be glad that such spaces exist and will continue to exist while they are so popular. 

We need to make our way to the caravan park since were are being picked up by a colleague who has very kindly offered to show us about the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, so we will re-commence our update next time.

Another view of the fields of this epic battle.

The famous bridge and the famous Lee.

I spy with my little eye a big Chateau.

One of the views as we drove to our next location.

A representative picture of the cemetery at Corbie

One of many pictures that I took and Lee took many more.

With a great gate.

The use of the water way is well done.

The Monet home but we did not have time to line up to see inside.

Tip toeing through the Tulips.

And another.

Day 28 begins in caravan park near Albert in the Somme area. 

Our mission today, if we are willing to take it on, is to visit the Australian/French shrine of remembrance dedicated to the thousands of Australian and Commonwealth troopers that fell during the 1st World War (WW1). 

We are in the area of the battles of attrition we learnt about in school history lessons about WW1, and now so realistically, amongst the over 2000 burial grounds of the over 750,000 fallen that was the result of WW1. Sadly, the powers that be did not learn and great human losses also resulted from a 2nd World War less than half a century later.

We are here to pay our respects for those sacrifices.

On the way to the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery we came across one of those 2000 cemeteries, in the town of Corbie, and the surrounds were serine (and interestingly right next to a primary school) and I only took one picture - of the trees and the fallen petals, as it was symbolic to me of the essence of war. Lives absent their potential.

We are getting to the end of our travels and the country side is changing again and the highways and byways provide new vistas to imprint in our memories.

The Military Cemetery we are heading for is on the top of a rise, in the country side near Villers-Bretonneux and driving towards this location it is apparent that it is the most prominent feature of the local landscape. To me that represents the importance of the place, not only to Australians and others that are represented there, but also to the locals that drive past it regularly and also see it from their homes.

Lee and I walk about the cemetery which is the actual place of burial of so many Australians, Candians, English and Scottish troopers but also representative of those fallen that do not have a known resting place. Each headstone of a fallen tropper has words on the bottom third of that headstone which were submitted by the relatives of the fallen, created from a form sent out by the Australian War memorial service to the next of kin of those fallen servicemen and servicewomen seeking information about each of them. There is also a wall covered with the names of those without known resting places and amongst them we note some McFarlane's and Temple's (Lee's maiden name) but we are unsure of any connection.

The tourist busses are arriving (many Australians amongst them). We climb the well trodden stairs to the top of the centre piece structure of this cemetery to see the vastness of the area these brave troopers were battling over. Having seen the rolling hills so serene today, we then somberly walk with heavy hearts towards our CamperVan and continue our journey glad to have experienced this place and in a small way paid our respects to those that made the greatest sacrifice for the freedom we enjoy today.

We have kilometers to travel before we rest so we make our way using a combination of toll-ways and back roads and end up at Chateau de Bouafles near Bouafles on the Seine River in preparation for the next day's adventure in Givernay.

And more Tulips with forget-me-nots.

One of the views from the main structure at this cemetery.

Not so hard to avoid tourists when you take the shot from an unusual position.