Today is moving day. But first we are planning on visiting some memorial sites and cemeteries. They are visible everywhere here but we’ve picked a couple that are only fifteen minutes away.

Our first stop is Vimy Ridge, a Canadian memorial site and the location of a huge battle fought between the Canadians and Germans in WWI. The visitors centre has some interesting exhibitions and artifacts and we take a tour in the trenches and the tunnels used by the Canadians to launch a surprise attack on the Germans.

The memorial itself sits right on the top of the ridge towering over the surrounding countryside. It bears the names of all Canadians that died in France with no known grave.

Our next stop is to a memorial we spotted in the video we watched in the Wellington Tunnels museum. It’s called the Notre Dame de Lorette memorial and was inaugurated in 2015. A giant elliptical ring floats over the ground and has inscribed the names of every soldier, whatever side they were on, who died in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region in the First World War in alphabetical order. 579,606 names. It’s a powerful reminder of the terrible cost of war.

Literally 100 yards away is the Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, the largest French military cemetery in the world. It has 40,057 casualties buried here from numerous wars. In one grave a father and son are buried, the father died inWWI and the son in WWII.

Lunch in the van and then onto our campsite in Le Nouvion en-Thierache with a stop at Lidl along the way for supplies. It’s called Lac du Conde and once we settle in we have a wander around the lake and enjoy steak and Frites in a nearby Brasserie followed by a bit of TV and an early night.

Friday 21:07:23