April and May jaunts

Easter time normally sees us nip over the channel to France, but this year I was told '....it's too cold and the bar is shut....' What can you say to that and therefore just before the May Day weekend we set off.

Our first day, as usual, we ventured to the supermarket to stock up the fridge with meats, cheeses and lots of salads + a few little luxuries. The weather was very good and an afternoon of reading and sitting in the sun followed.

When away at anytime, regular followers will know that I photograph war memorials etc, my family and friends say I can spot a memorial or a church at 2 mile, I think that is a slight exaggeration !!!! We did on this visit to France and I include my hubbie in this, photograph 3 complete CWGC cemtereries, namely - The Canadian War Cemetery of Calais about 700 photographs, The Pihen-les-Guines War Cemetery with about 150 images and finally, Le Baraque Military Cemetery, Bleriot le Plage with over 1000 images and eventually will be put in a gallery style web section.

When photographing the Canadian cemetery, the sun shone but it was bitterley cold and I was alone on this excursion as Ben said it was toooooo cold. I was joined after a while by 3 young girls who looked at the headstones, took photographs of the memorial cross and then left me alone again. As I neared the end of my task the shelter of the fir trees was very welcome and left me without the wind chill.

Pihen-les-Guines was a very peaceful place, as are all the cemeteries, even with a school playground a matter of yards away, is in two sections. The first section being more a part of the Communal cemetery, while the larger part is accessed via a grass path.

The largest of the cemeteries had the majority of the headstones laid out in the usual format but with many forming a border along the boundary wall. There was also a section for the Chinese Labour Force.

While in France I photographed the War Memorial in St Omer, so many names and so many civilians from WW2, all in date order - a great help for researchers. One date for May, off hand can't remember the date of the year, but there were so many civilians who lost their lives, must have been nearly 100 people - What happened on that day to cause such a loss the the town ? Does anyone know ?

Back in England we followed the coast for a while and found a few more memorials along the way - including: Appledore, Dymchurch, Headcorn, Lynn, Lypne and Snargate. So as they say Watch This Space for them all being added to GenealogyJunction.

If you are looking for a specific memorial photograph or transcription, please email me - you never know it may be just waiting to be transcribed and added.

Happy hunting