Vauban

Vauban is the street on which I live. Here is a shot of the house.
Allow me to give you the tour.

First, my room. I share it with two lovely Newfoundlanders, but as you can see, we have plenty of space. And, more importantly, plenty of closet space! What a blessing that we are all very sound sleepers, because there is quite a bit of coming and going at all hours, by all parties concerned.


We have 3 floors, 2 full bathrooms, one pink, one blue, and 2 toilet closets. As far as toilets go, we're covered.
Here you can see the hallway of closets. There is definetly more closet space than we need. This corridor can double as a place to keep guests! The closets can sleep at least 4!
The living room. This space is also called "the parlour" or "the piano bar." One roommate sometimes treats us to some entertainment on the keyboard he rented. Here is my roommate, Angela, in the kitchen. This space is rather small for 7 people trying to make dinner all at the same time. What is even more tricky is sharing the one fridge and one bar fridge between 7.
Everyone always has to work on Sundays and so after work we come home and while 2 people make dinner, the rest clean the house. This was our first "family dinner."
When a party happens at Vauban, it's called a "Vau-bash." At the first such event there was cheese fondue in the kitchen.
All in all, it's a nice place to live. My roommates are swell and there is always something going on. I'm a 10 minute walk from the train station, the grocery store, bakery, and pretty much all the necessities. Daily life in France is proving to be rather nice.

At work

What does Naomi do all day at work? Well, I rarely have to exert myself all that much, which is great. The main thing that I do is give tours of a small portion of the tunnel system that exists on site. I show visitors how the tunnels were used to transport troops and supplies towards the front lines, while also interpreting the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge, some features of the battlefield, and the memorial site as it exists today. On average, I give about 2 or 3 45 minute tours a day.

The flagpole where we gather our tour groups and start tours.
Below you can see the reception desk in the visitors centre. Sometimes I'm posted here to greet people, give information, and organize the day's tours.
When not doing either of the above duties, we head out to the trenches! I spend a good portion of my day walking up and down this path saying : "bonjour hello" to visitors as they pass by. We also ask them where they are from, and then tell them to get off the grass. When mobs of school children come through, we tell them to stop running and, from time to time, when their behaviour becomes unsavoury, we try to remind them that they are standing in a place where many men died and are still buried.

This path takes you over no man's land between the Canadian and German lines. On either side of the path are huge mine craters. We basically just hang out here to keep an eye on things, and to be available to answer any questions that people may have. We tend to do a lot of chatting with British and Canadian visitors. So that you don't feel left-out, here is a run-down of the basic info sought by most visitors:
Yes, we are, in fact, REAL Canadians.
We are students, working here for a 4 month term.
We have been here for X amount of time.
We live in Arras.
We love France.
The craters were not created by shells, but by underground mines.

Here you can see part of the very small portion of the German trenches that have been preserved.
The most amusing part of my job is use of the walkie-talkie. Ok, I'm not serious about that, but it does keep me amused from time to time. Did you copy that?
At other points during the day we can take leisurely walks up to the monument or out to a couple of Canadian cemetaries that are on site.

And, of course, when it's raining and no one is on site, we sit in our little lunch room and do what we like. I mostly try to read up on the war; some of my co-workers prefer to knit.
There you have it. Not thrilling by any means, but I do enjoy being paid to learn about something new. The best part of the job is meeting people who really want to know lots about history, and who share bits of their own family history (as it relates to the war, of course) with you.

the movies

Voila the ceiling in one of the many galleries of the Louvre.

Last night the Da Vinci Code opened in France (in fact, I believe it premiered down at Cannes last night), so I went to go see it with some of my coworkers. Though I've never read the book, it was a very entertaining flick. I imagine that I enjoyed it more because I have not read the book. As is usually the case, many who had read the book seemed to be dissappointed, because they knew all the details that the movie had to leave out.

The opening scenes take place in the Louvre and most of the movie is set in Paris. What made the movie particularly entertaining for me, however, was the fact that I had only just visited the Louvre for the first time that morning, and of all the galleries to visit, only went to the few that were featured in the movie (don't worry Mom, I plan on going back to see more). They showed paintings that I had just seen that morning! They ran through the gallery where the Monna Lisa hangs, and I had just been there 10 hours earlier! Tom Hanks walks around the big glass pyramid in the courtyard that I had just walked past that morning! It was kind of neat.

The only thing is, I kind of wished that I could have heard Audrey Tautou speaking in English with her cute French accent; I'm in France, so of course, the whole thing was in French!

The Monument

The monument at Vimy Ridge is under renovation until the end of 2006. It's about 70 years old and weather has taken its toll. You can see here what the highest point on the ridge looks like today with renovations underway.A limestone from Croatia was used to build the monument. In the 20s, they didn't know as much about materials and engineering as we know today, and so were not aware that this stone would not weather very well in a climate full of rain and rapid freeze-thaw cycles. Poor drainage and quickly accumulating mineral deposits from water in the joints between stones has caused a great deal of dammage. Though they are trying to retain as much of the original stone as possible, some of it has to be replaced. They searched far and wide for suitable stone, but ended up re-opening the original quarry in Croatia.

Below is one of the figures on the monument. Everyone of the over 11,000 names on the monument are being re-engraved.

New engineering technologies are being implemented to help ward-off the damage caused by weather in the past 70 years. A special mortar was developed uniquely for use on this monument. Some crazy technologies are being used as well, such as a system whereby they lay these stones down on top of some very specialized sandbags; this has something to do with drainage. Though I really would have no idea, it all sounded very impressive, and made me say: "Gee, the things they've come up with. What will they think of next?" Science really has accomplished some cool things.

Beyond that are some shots of a woman, representing a young Canada, mourning her dead. Below where she stands is the tomb of an unknown soldier (or represents the tomb of one).

Oh, and then there's me, at the base of one of the monument's main pillars. As you can see, because of the millions of dollars spent renovating this monument, Veteran's Affairs Canada clearly does not have the cash to get me clothes that fit.

Danger

Danger is everywhere on the Vimy memorial site. An estimated 30-40% of munitions used during the First World War did not explode. Despite the fact that demining teams have swept most areas of the memorial site at least 4-5 times, unexploded munitions are continually coming to the surface. These red signs can be found all over telling people to keep off the grass and not wander off into the forrested areas. Farmers tilling their fields in this area regularly pull up unexploded shells. It's a fact of life around here. All they do is pile them in the ditch and demining teams come around every few weeks and pick them up.

Honestly, the signs and whatnot are more for insurance purposes than anything these days. Walking around in the woods here and happening upon an unexploded shell probably isn't all that dangerous. It's when people start to tamper with them that things turn ugly. About 20 people a year still die as a result of the First World War; most of these are cases of local people (often times kids) who find shells, take them home, and start to tinker.

Along with munitions coming up to the surface, sometimes corpses do too. Last year, when re-doing a parking-lot on site they found the corpse of a German soldier. The site director, while having a look at it, happened to touch one of the buttons on this soldier's uniform. A little while later, the director's finger started to burn, and some of the skin was eaten away. They think that there may have been traces of mustard gas on this corpse. Apparently mustard gas can stick around for quite some time.

Digging With the Durand Group

Today my shoulders and right arm are rather sore and stiff. I spent my day-off yesterday digging away with the Durand Group in a ravine on the Newfoundland Memorial Site. They're looking for entrances into German tunnels that they know to exist in this area.

Outfitted with "wellies," hardhat, and coveralls, I had the chance to muck around in the mud with a colourful bunch of Brits. Most are military/war historians (either by profession or by hobby), and many are military or retired military. Anti-terrorism experts and a variety of military engineers working for NATO were among the lot. Needless to say, I learned a lot.

As we dug, we regularly found shrapnel pellets and the odd bullet, which were ALL passed on to me. "There you go, another souvenir for the family!" I now have more shrapnel than I know what to do with (and it doesn't take much).

I was busy with one group prepping a site for them to start digging into on a later day. We removed the sod off the hillside and then removed the topsoil, digging a little further down into the chalk to get a sense of the composition of the earth at that spot. What we found below the topsoil were indications that this spot had been filled-in at some point.

A little further down the ravine they were digging at another spot. Right before I left that day they had come upon quite a bit of timber and what seemed to be a wooden floor (which could have been the roof of a dugout. The Germans did quite a bit of reinforcing their tunnels and dugouts, making them quite habitable). Upon further exploration they found two holes in the wooden floor, causing them to think that perhaps they had hit upon a "crapper." Five minutes later this was revised, thinking that perhaps it was a cookhouse. By the time I left nothing had been determined yet. Suffice to say, they found something, though whether it was something significant remained to be seen.

It's entirely possible in this area that there could exist some munitions stores or even a sealed-off mass grave.

They were very kind to let me join them for the day. I was apprehensive that I might get in their way or not really be of assistance, but truth be told, the work was not all that strenuous. We took a good hour for lunch, which was provided, complete with tea and ale.

The best thing about the day was the constant running commentary which I will not attempt to recreate here as I would certainly not only fall short, but offend with some of the more "colourful" new expressions I learned. It also amused me that as we were digging, some of the guys, no longer in the prime of their lives, needed to stop every now and again to take a break. Not for water, nor to catch their breath, but to have a cigarette. Ah Europe.


Naomi passing buckets full of dirt down the chain. Below are shots of the spot where timber was found, and a shot of the muddy ravine.

Ma Cabane au Canada

Some years ago (in the 80s), a former director of Vimy had this quaint little cabin built back in the woods on the memorial site under the pretense that the guides would then have somewhere they could go to relax and have bar-b-q's and feel like they had a little piece of Canada right here in France. Because so many Canadians actually live in, or spend time in log cabins. Uh, right.

His real reason for constructing this neat little hide-a-way was so that he would have a place to bring his secretary, with whom he was having an affair. His office was in his house, along with his wife, and so, it would seem, that a cabin was necessary. The secretary and the director ended up together in the end, or so we've been told.

Oh, today the Durand group stashes some of their gear here, and, I suspect, use it as a place to smoke cigars and have a few refreshing bevies at the end of a long day of rooting around for abandoned mines.

Rambling About the Countryside

As previously mentioned, excursions were the best part of training, and excursions with the Colonel were particularly fun. On a couple of afternoons the bunch of us rambled about the countryside after the Colonel who had a walking stick in one hand and a cigar in the other.

One afternoon he walked us around the Beaumont-Hamel site, pointing out different features of the landscape and showing us around behind the German lines in areas where the public is not permitted to wander (more on that in a later post).

Here is one of my co-workers in a shell-hole.
















Here is the gang walking down into "Y Ravine," a strategically important position held by the Germans in this region of the Somme for quite some time.

A view of the shell holes amongst the trenches on the battlefield. It always seems a touch strange to enjoy the beauty and serenity of this landscape, considering the horror and wretchedness that created it.



On another afternoon, the Colonel walked us through the forrest on the Vimy site. Over the span of 2 hours the weather took turns raining, hailing, and shining sunlight on us.


A Wombat mine. Here a tunnel had been dug by an Australian-invented tunnelling machine, called a "Wombat," and then a mine was laid which was exploded to create a new trench.


It is uncertain why this gorgeous boulevard of trees exists in these woods. This path leads from the former train station that existed in the town of Vimy to where they had originally proposed to put the Canadian monument (the plans were later revised and the site for the monument was shifted). It's thought that perhaps this was meant as a road to take visitors from the station to the monument. Too bad, considering that visitors today can only get to the site by car.

Training

For reference purposes, it may be interesting to note that the times attached to these posts are North American, and not the time at which I am posting in France.

Update: Today I heard a French man say "ah-la-la."

Training was a whirlwind. Despite the uncomfortable half-days spent sitting in a very cold hall in the middle of a tiny French village learning about military and the first world war, it was quite interesting. Excursions out and about to cemetaries and different parts of the Western Front were the best part.

Two British chaps were responsible for our training. The first, Nigel, is an author and expert on all things related to the Great War and the Western front in particular. Incidentally, he is also a member of an unknown (that is, unknown to me) Catholic order, and lives primarily in Rome. He is often heard saying in a rather dry tone: "Oh joy, oh rapture, oh minor ecstasy." Or, should you ask why he lives in Rome (does he work for the Vatican?), he might reply: "Because, my dear, the poor unhappy Italians need me." A little wierd? Yes.

The other chap is mainly known to us as "The Colonel." His name is Philip and he is a retired member of the Royal Engineers as well as a member of the Durand Group. The Durand Group is an organization of expert volunteers who work around the Canadian war memorials investigating the unexplored tunnels and mines from the Great War. From time to time they discover huge undetonated mines and disarm them. Though all members are experts in their respective fields, they are generally, it seems to me, a rather motley crew of people who study maps and poke around in the woods just to see what sorts of danger they can unearth. Apparently, the Colonel was on Tony Blair's anti-terrorism advisory committee just after 9-11.

The Colonel can be seen here showing us a spot in the forest where the ground has given way into a German tunnel which was below (danger is literally everywhere in these woods), and pointing out some feature or other in the trenches.

France is Still Here

Indeed, France is still here. What can I say? There's dog doo everywhere, and people are walking around with baguettes in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Ooo la la. No wait, I haven't heard anyone say that, nor have I ever said it.

The first 10 days here have been a whirlwind. We trained for 7 days straight while living in a somewhat grubby hostel. I then worked for 3 days before finally having a day off, today.

10 days ago I knew virtually nothing about war or military organization, and now I have given tours, in both official languages, dealing with these topics.

The student program that I'm working for staffs both the Canadian National Vimy Memorial as well as the Beaumont-Hamel Canadian Memorial for the Newfoundland Regiment, in the Somme. I'm working at Vimy, though I did not know which one I'd be placed at until I arrived. It's about a 20 minute drive out into the countryside for work everyday. Lucky kids that we are, Veteran's Affairs has provided us with gianormous vans (though they feel more like driving a bus) to get from our homes in Arras to the sites. Picture of said van/bus is shown here.