Normandy
From the beginning of my travel, one of the biggest things I hoped to accomplish, was to find the resting place of my Great Grandfather. I knew he died in Normandy, France in World War One.
I figured a good place to start my was in the middle of Normandy. Doing no research beforehand, I picked Caen.
Caen is a beautiful place.
1 Caen
I spend a few weeks there doing research and visiting historical sites and cities near by.
Bayeux, one of the cities near Caen, was unbelievable. It’s a little town with canals running through parts of it. Picturesque!
2 Bayeux
Having seen many World War Two movies and studying Canada’s contributions on the subject, I had to visit Juno Beach.
3 Juno Beach
As part of the reseach, I was discussing my findings with family. After a conversation, I found he died in the Battle of Amiens. This gave me a date to go along with his full name. With those two bits of information, I found his resting place through an online grave index. Amazingly, his record had the address he lived at in Vancouver. I cross referenced this with marriage records of my Grandaunt, which had that same address. 100% this was my Great Grandfather. He is buried in a small town outside of Amiens.
And I was off to Amiens….By way of Prauge, Krakow, Dublin and Kiyv. I’ll skip those for now, however.
4 Amiens
I spent a week in Amiens, wandering around and taking in this beaufitul place.
I also took a couple side trips. One was to see Vimy Ridge Memorial
5 Vimy
Unexploded ordinace across the street from Vimy!
A bicycling detour had me happen across an old WW2 firing position in a field.
I did a day trip to Lens and Battle of Hill 70 memorial site.
6 Lens
7 Battle of Hill 70 Memorial
On the train to Lens, I had a transfer in Arras. I took the time to explore the city and stumbled across a Summer sausage festival. The Feast of Andouillette.
8 Arras
Of course, I did all of this exploration after visiting a little town called Rosières where my Great Grandfather rests.
9 Rosières
Rest in Peace.