Well another day has dawned and we are up early for our next adventure, we have decided to explore the D roads in an effort to get to Villers-Bretonneux where we will visit the memorials to Australian and Commonwealth troops. All started well however we soon realized that French backroads go through many towns, slowing the journey considerably. Even though slow the journey was memorable for the people we met along the way, like Isabella the host at a café where we stopped, she was lovely and the situation was proof that even without French language skills you can still make friends. Judy even let Isabella serve her the second shot of coffee she has had in 20 years as she didn’t have the heart to ask for a tea and would have killed someone to get to a toilet (buying something is the only way in France). Eventually we made it to the outskirts of Villiers where we found the Adelaide Cemetery. The boys were stunned by the number of headstones in this small cemetery and the fact that well over half were young Australian men. We then travelled on through Villiers to the Commonwealth memorial where for the first time we met some other Australian tourists. The Cemetery itself is enormous and the memorial imposing. It’s hard not to be moved by this place. We look out in every direction to the signposted battle fields, which now lay silent as farms and quiet villages under the golden glow of the sun as it hangs low in the West. Today has been very long and we don’t have time to make Chartres for the light show so having learnt our lesson we take the National Highway back home.
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