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A few problems with writing blogs over the last few days, firstly on the ferry there was no Wi-Fi, then on the day we returned we went to the theatre (more about that in a future blog), while yesterday we visited Thomas and the grandchildren and did not get back until almost midnight. I hope that I will more than make up for it over the next few days.

It was quite late before we left the bed and breakfast on Thursday morning in the small Marne village of Oyes. I wanted to visit the memorial to the First Battle of the Marne in the First World War. It is an imposing pinky/grey column built on a small rise that was a focal point of the battle close by Oyes. I found the site very moving, as it was possible to see graphically the landscape over which the battle was fought. This was a watershed battle as it was the last one in modern European warfare where the battle was directed by general overlooking a battlefield. If you like it was the last descendent of battles like Waterloo. It was also a battle where there was the final clash of the ancient and modern, where cavalry faced machine guns, and where the French soldiers still wore blue coats with red trousers. What made me think was the awful fact that 180,000 French soldiers were killed in this battle. The photo below shows the battlefield laid out in from the small rise.

Co-incidentally we visited the memorial to the Second Battle of the Marne later in the day. The two battles effectively book-ended the First World War on French soil. The memorial at Dormans was of a completely different ilk, being a classic chapel and memorial situated in parkland. They were contrasting memorials; interestingly both were almost deserted of visitors.

After this look at history we found the champagne house that Barbara and Iain introduced us to three years ago. It is a small family run business that produces excellent champagnes at very reasonable prices. The lady who runs the shop remembered us from last year and we had pleasurable time sampling champagne before purchasing some cases to take home. It was a small miracle how we fitted forty-one bottles of wine into the mini that was supposedly full when we left for France. All I can say is that for the last leg of our journey the car’s performance was severely compromised.

On that final leg there was nail-biting moment when we were stuck in traffic while driving round Lille, otherwise the journey and ferry crossing were uneventful. We arrived home to find that the wet and warm weather had caused the garden to explode. Still we were so refreshed that a couple of day’s hard work has made a huge difference. Some reflections on the holiday in a later blog as well as the story of our explosive night at the theatre on Friday.