Cracking advice.....
Where exactly is the "big bridge"? : )
Oh, and tell me the B & B details please!
Cheers
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Absolutely no idea, sorry, but it's got to be worth a detour wherever it is.
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I'm thinking it's this one, and you're right, a dock-off bridge is always worth a drive:
"The Pont de Normandie (or Bridge of Normandy) is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the river Seine linking Le Havre to Honfleur in Normandy, northern France. Its total length is 2143.21 m (856 m between the 2 piers).
The bridge allows the Autoroute A29 to cross the Seine river.
The website of the company operating the bridge is www.sapn.fr/
[edit] Construction
The bridge was designed by Michel Virlogeux. The architects were François Doyelle and Charles Lavigne.[1] Construction by Spie Batignolles began in 1988 and lasted 7 years. The bridge opened on January 20, 1995.
At that time the bridge was both the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and had the record for the longest distance between piers for any cable-stayed bridge. It was more than 250 m longer between piers than the previous record. This record was lost in 1999 to the Tatara Bridge in Japan. Its record for length for a cable-stayed bridge was lost in 2004 to the 2883 meters of the Rio-Antirio. At the end of construction, the bridge had cost $465 million.
The cable-stayed design was chosen because it was both cheaper and more resistant to high winds than a suspension bridge.
Structure
The span, 23.60 m wide, is divided into 4 lanes for traffic and 2 lanes for pedestrians. The pylons, made of concrete, are shaped as upside-down Ys. They weigh more than 20,000 tons and are 214.77 m tall. More than 19,000 tons of steel were used and 184 cables were used."
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No no no no
this one, and it's in Southern France
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_Bridge
Far more elegant.
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Bit far south for a two day trip! Impressive though.
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Only a 17 hour round trip from Calais, fits into a weekend away quite neatly. But watch the mobile cameras on the N154. (Done the trip twice in the last 3 weeks).
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pmh (was peter)
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You should have a good weekend - I'm writing this from northern France and the weather here is wonderful.
You could try Bruges, only just up the road from Dunkerque.
Lille has completely reinvented itself over the last 20 years or so and is worth a visit.
If you're interested in WW1 the site at Vimy is definitely worth seeing but may be largely closed off this weekend because one's Majesty and others are gathering for the re-inauguation of the Canadian monument early next week (you may wish to see Her, I wouldn't know).
The monument and visitor centre at Thiepval are also worth seeing.
Amsterdam is only about 3 hours away.
If you tell me what interets you, I may have other ideas.
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Cheers mchenry: I went to Bruges last year when I was driving back from Würzburg, beautiful place.. but want to try somewhere different.
I am VERY interested in WW1 stuff, bit of an obsession of mine, so I might go to Vimy and/or Thiepval on the Monday or Tuesday. I can confirm my utter lack of interest in anything Royal...
I like windswept beaches, cliffs, empty motorways, cheese, wine and Heather Graham. You can probably assist with the first five, but any help with the last also appreciated...
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www.varletfarm.com/
B&B details. WW1 orientetated owner who speaks perfect English. Home cooking comfy beds and a fridge full of Belgian beer (charged by the bottle top), cheap the last time I stayed in 2005 and excellent conversation over a lavish breakfast.
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Don't forget to take yr copy of John Keegan's The Face of Battle stevied...
Reims, champagne.
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Will do!
Reims sounds fun...
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"The monument and visitor centre at Thiepval are also worth seeing"
I also have knowledge of a B&B within sight of the Memorial, run by a lady in her late 70s who cooks to perfection and makes a wicked (headache inducing) home made pernod type drink.
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For WWI interests, there is the "Historial" in Péronne - been past it often enough, never gone in.
While in Péronne, the Chemin de Fer Froissy-Cappy-Dompierre has an interesting collection of locomotives and rolling stock used to supply the front lines.
There's the tank in Flesquieres which was buried in 1918 and located and dug up 80 years later by a guy with a metal detector and a hell of a lot of patience.
Don't know when all this is open - try a google for it.
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stevied, Riems is a good hike, but a good road and worth seeing. However closer still for a meander down the coast is Boulogne and Le Touquet and then inland for St Omer and then bac k to Dunkerque.Loads of places to stay in Le Touquet also St Omer has several nice hotels in the beautiful town square.Got me going now i am off to book something myself.Concrete.
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If you have any interest in WW1 - go to Ypres, be at the menem gate memorial for 20:00 when the Ypres fire brigade play the last post . Say Hi to great grandfather TVM who is remembered on one of the panels. Fell April 1915.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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"Fell April 1915"
Under a bus?
Sorry RF, I couldn't resist and I've been on best behaviour all week.
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"Sorry RF, I couldn't resist and I've been on best behaviour all week."
You shoud have resisted a bit longer - tasteless and totally unfunny remark.
Perhaps you should read up a bit on what those poor blokes went through at Ypres/Passchendaele.
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Phil
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PS. The WW1 Museum in the old Cloth Hall is a fantastic place. When you go in they give you a ticket with a name on of someone who fought there so that you can follow "his/her war". Makes it very personal . Be prepared to shed a tear.
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Phil
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Superb fish Resteraunt on the square in Ypres - Anker (I think it's called), serves excellent bier as well.....mmm bier......
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Another one in Etaples, right on the quay, run by a fishermen's cooperative. Often many GB registered cars in the carpark.
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Well BBD, one part of me laughs and one part is appalled.
The appalled part. I really dont think anyone appreciates how bad WW1 was, and how every family in the UK probably lost some young male members to the great war. I know of villages where EVERY (yes thats EVERY male) between 18 and 35 died in WW1......
And that would be "fell under a charabanc" they didnt have busses then... What is a charabanc?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Buses took a lot of them to the front - they were genuine buses. Agree with TVM but's not get to precious though humour in the military is a close bedfellow to tragedy.
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Further 2 pen'orth.
OP basically has 2 days.
How about Somme day 1 (Albert is about 2 hours from Dunkerque) - choice of Vimy on way there, then Thiepval, Lochnagar crater etc maybe Peronne (the historial is well worth a visit) then via Villers-Bretonneux (Aussie memorial and a charming museum in the school at Villers about how the Aussies and Brits turned the March 1918 retreat into the final advance to victory - and my Grandads's war diary is available to view there!). Then to Amiens - fairly uninspiring town centre but a magnificent cathedral with (I think) the highest nave in the world and some lovely cafes/restaurants near the cathedral down by the river.
Day 2, to the coast - Baie de Somme has extensive wild areas (bird sanctuary at Marquentiere, salt flats, mud sand banks with seals etc), and some lovely little towns (St Valery, Le Crotoy).
To the south are spectacular chalk cliffs (Etretat, Le Treport) interspersed with small, old fashioned resorts and small ports, most of which have loads of sea-food restaurants for lunch. North of Baie de Somme are long sandy beaches (Berck, Merlimont, Le Touquet etc) all the way to Boulogne, after which you again have cliffs, (Caps Blanc and Gris Nez) with some small (and very old fashioned) resorts like Wimereux and Wissant.
Baie de Somme is about 90 mins by motorway from Dunkerque.
Don't forget to stock up with wine/beer in France (Auchan at Boulogne, Calais, Dunkerque (Grande Synthe)) all just off mway, and if you are a smoker, fags/cigars/tobacco in Belgium (Adinkerke - first exit off mway in Belgium, just north of Dunkerque)
Hope I'm not "teaching my grandmother to suck eggs"!
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Phil
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"teaching my grandmother to suck eggs"
Cue rubbish joke.
How many eggs can a French person eat in one sitting ?
One ! (Un oeuf is enough)
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Sorry, PU, I must disagree.
Why don't the French ever eat only one egg for breakfast?
Because un oeuf is never enough.
Alternatively: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?...
... nobody knows...
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Oh yes, and the real reason for my post is that I spent a very happy day at the Imperial War Museum, in Kennington, on Friday. In pride of place as you come through the entrance is an ancient omnibus which saw service in France for several years. The British Government was completely unprepared for WW1, and purchased 1,000 lorries from private owners, and took a good number of London Transport buses over to France. The buses even became mobile pigeon coops.
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"British Government was completely unprepared for WW1, and purchased 1,000 lorries from private owners
Some things never change, they also commandeered thousands of horses and their grooms - one of the saddest memorials is at Chipilly on the Somme, a statue of a squaddie comforting his dying horse, one of the most moving monuments not of man's inhumanity to man but to poor dumb animals; one of my great Uncle's letters from Belgium (he thought he was in France - he didn't have Sat Nav !) was his horror at the screaming of the dying horses during an artillery attack, he was a horseman....he was never the same apparently and probably one of the reasons that family PU took to the air in subsequent wars ! So much for his lucky horseshoe !
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PU,
Extract from my Grandfather's diary on the same theme
"Sept 8th (1916)
Saw the most horrible sight of all I've seen so far. Fritz dropped some shells just behind the battery, right in among about a hundred & fifty horses and men. Blew one horse clean in two and killed other two, and three men - saw one man's leg go through the air and fell about fifty yards away. It was too awful for words."
He was on the Somme but in the Artillery (as was father in WW2) which at least meant that he was a few thousand yards behind the trenches and probably accounts for him surviving 4 years of war.
Incidentally (and transport related), he was on 9.2 inch Howitzers which were large enough to be split into 3 parts for transport, towed by American Holt Tractors (British unprepared for shifting big guns around?) which were some of the first "caterpillars" and the precursor of the tank. I think they were petrol engined (some were gas powered? and some were steam?) - but I can't find exactly which versions were used to tow the guns.
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Phil
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they also commandeered thousands of horses
Hundreds of thousands, more like.
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John Keegan mentions the compassion felt by the troops on the Somme for the suffering of horses. Seems to have been a way of keeping their minds off the human suffering in that unbelievably awful and bloody battle.
Among my mother's papers is a note scribbled in pencil on a dirty scrap of wrapping paper by her uncle, a young Jesuit chaplain in the trenches, to his CO thanking him for his medal citation - for tending and bringing in wounded men under fire - but demurring about whether he deserved it. The CO's widow took the trouble to identify my mother and send her the note after the CO's death. In ink on the back of the note in the CO's hand are the words: 'None more gallantly won.'
My wife's grandfather is commemorated on a stone in a cemetery near Beauvais, having died of infected wounds a couple of weeks after the first day of the battle, leaving three young daughters and a widow who never remarried.
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Moving stuff Lud et al.
Paris may never have been defended, but it's not surprising.
Take a glance in any French village at the long, long list of names on the memorial for the Great War, esp if it has the word 'Verdun' on it. Often several dozen names for a village of a couple of hundred inhabitants.
BTW, a charabanc was a single deck bus, open-topped, but usually with a hood that could be stretched over the passengers if necessary. Often the bodywork could be changed for a lorry for use during the week. Once very common in the UK but, in spite of the name, apparently rare in France.
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