It is 9:00 p.m. and we have just eaten dinner in the Hostellerie Saint-Louis in Bollezeele (Nord), France, a small town that Grandad Partington stayed in during 1915 or 1916 prior to a battle at Ypres in Belgium. The hotel was originally a hospice but may have been a field station during the Great War.
To reach Bollezeele we travelled by ferry from Dover to Calais. The Spirit of France is one of two of the largest cross Channel ferries ever built.
Following arrival in Calais we explored the area around the Channel Tunnel, coming across remains of one of the ‘moles’ that did the digging of the tunnel from the French side.
Later we crossed ‘The Cloth of Gold’. This is an area of farmland near Guines where Henry VIII met the King of France for a 16th century ‘G8’ conference. (one mustn’t forget England owned large areas of this region and the King of France wanted them back!!! We don’t know of a supermarket at home that is located in such a historic location.
At lunchtime we returned to a giant bunker, near Eperlecques, built to launch V2 rockets (German) to England which was seriously damaged in 1943 and put out of action. The concrete is so thick that the main building is merely scratched but the vital support structures were ruined.
Prior to our arrival in our hotel we passed through the village of Pitgam, where on a family cycling holiday we were based for a few days. Today we couldn’t find the campsite but the fields of flax are still there.
