The Beginning
Travel began Friday with an Uber ride to Red Arrow, a Red Arrow bus to Calgary Airport, and Westjet flight 010 to Paris. It was a smooth trip and good flight. The Westjet flight to Paris is a new one. First flight of the new Boeing 787 Spirit of Canada was on May 16th. It departs at 7:35 pm and arrives in Paris around noon the following day. 8 hours of flying and 7 hours of time change are rough on the mind and body; but I always find that excitement trumps jet lag just about every time.
Tired, but anticipating the sites, we checked in to our hotel. It was about a half hour walk to Notre Dame Cathedral along the banks of the Seine. Fighting the crowds around the fenced off Cathedral we wandered somewhat aimlessly taking in the atmosphere. The weather on Saturday and Sunday was glorious - high 20's, low 30's, cloudless. People were lined up at ice cream shops.
Around another corner and there was the Palais de Justice de Paris, Conceirgerie, and Sainte Chapelle. A former Palace and home of royalty the Conceirgerie holds the cells where Marie Antoinette spent the final days of her life; Saint Chapelle is a chapel with some of the finest works of medieval stained glass in the world.
Travel began Friday with an Uber ride to Red Arrow, a Red Arrow bus to Calgary Airport, and Westjet flight 010 to Paris. It was a smooth trip and good flight. The Westjet flight to Paris is a new one. First flight of the new Boeing 787 Spirit of Canada was on May 16th. It departs at 7:35 pm and arrives in Paris around noon the following day. 8 hours of flying and 7 hours of time change are rough on the mind and body; but I always find that excitement trumps jet lag just about every time.
Tired, but anticipating the sites, we checked in to our hotel. It was about a half hour walk to Notre Dame Cathedral along the banks of the Seine. Fighting the crowds around the fenced off Cathedral we wandered somewhat aimlessly taking in the atmosphere. The weather on Saturday and Sunday was glorious - high 20's, low 30's, cloudless. People were lined up at ice cream shops.
Around another corner and there was the Palais de Justice de Paris, Conceirgerie, and Sainte Chapelle. A former Palace and home of royalty the Conceirgerie holds the cells where Marie Antoinette spent the final days of her life; Saint Chapelle is a chapel with some of the finest works of medieval stained glass in the world.
Sainte Chapelle The basement
Day two brought more sightseeing. A hot day on the open top of Bigbus Paris following the routes through the major sites of the city began with a lovely walk through the Marais district near the hotel. It was early morning meant the crowds of yesterday were non existent. Clearer views of the sites as a result...
Towers of Notre Dame
The Seine
Really? You don't know?
The Opera
Sacre Coeur
870 year old doors
The streets of Paris
Stained Glass at Paroisse Saint Pierre de Montmartre
Obelisk (gift from Egypt)
Back to Notre Dame
Today, day three, was a pre-arranged tour to Vimi Ridge. 175 kilometres north of Paris we met the tour at 6:30 am and drove towards what was the Western Front a bit over 100 years ago. We stopped at cemeteries for the fallen soldiers of both sides...
Graves of French soldiers
Soldiers of the British Commonwealth
German Soldiers (4 to a grave)
It was a powerfully emotional day wandering the memories of the Great War, reminded that so many were nameless at the end of their lives, "A soldier of the great war...known to God" on many of the graves. Perhaps identified by a symbol for their nationality, and, perhaps, other information when it was available...This grave connected me with home, a Princess Patricia is all that is known. Pride, sadness and the desire to remember, always.
On to Vimy, Canadian soil on foreign land. The lists the names of the 11,285 "missing, presumed dead" Canadians in France between 1914 and 18. Created in 1936, restored for dedication by Queen Elizabeth in 2007, it is a unique place and experience. The craters, tunnels, trenches of those fateful days in 1917 when 4 Canadian divisions came to battle for the first time in our countries' history are preserved. They took their objectives and set the course of history. We entered the war British subjects. At Vimy we matured and took our own identity. 30,000 men in the course of three days achieved what many thought was impossible.
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