Villers Bretonneaux 🇫🇷 ANZAC Day 2024

A day I will always remember. 

I left my accom at 2.15am to walk the quiet streets of Amiens to join the fleet of busses headed to the ANZAC dawn service.  I've only met a few Aussies in the last 10 months and so it added to the experience being surrounded by the strong Aussie accent.

We arrived to the site half an hour later and filed through the passport check, backpack check and then to the Somme tourism coffee and croissant free brekky

😊. I bumped into Russell and Kathy who I had chatted with the day before at a museum and  I joined them. 

 
We walked on the grass, flanked by gravestones to the 2200 chairs set out for those of us attending the service today.  Arriving early meant we got some great seats on the centre aisle.  I walked over and asked if I could go to the wall and look at Great great uncle Berts name again and they said yes. 

We sat for a while and then at 4am a 1.5hr program commenced with the band playing a range of music from war entertainment type tunes to more sombre music and interspersed with big screen visual stories of individuals or stories on how the local communities rebuilt etc.

The temp dropped significantly as dawn approached and we were all shivering in 1 degrees temps.

Then at 5.30am the official televised program commenced. A moving, professional, respectful service.
I feel so very blessed to have been able to attend on behalf of my family.

The shuttle bus then dropped us into the township of Villers Bretonneaux which stands today as a direct result of the Australian involvement.  Most houses had French and Australian flags, memorabilia in their windows.  The local school was rebuilt following the war from funds raised by Victorian schoolchildren. We were able to visit. 

Then to the small museum where local french women had baked biscuits to say thankyou.

Then attended the French wreath laying service where they honoured both French and Aussies who had died.  I was standing beside French people and we respectively sang our national anthems. 

A french woman gave me two memorabilia pins 😊

Once back in Amiens I went to look at the Notre Dame Cathedral which is large enough to house the Paris version twice!
Then back to my room for a rest.

This afternoon I followed the Jules Verne trail as he lived here and was an active member of the community.

Finished the day off with drinks and dinner with two friendly Aussie couples I have met in the last couple of days 😊

Australians we get to enjoy the peace and privilege we have due to the sacrifices made by those who have gone before us.

❤️ Lest we Forget ❤️