Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Friday, June 24, 2011

Another really interesting thing about my new customer's location is the history. They are right smack dab in the middle of the Somme, which some of you might recognize from the famous "Battle of the Somme" in 1916. This battle was one of the mostly costly for the British Army, especially July 1, 1916, which remains the bloodiest day of battle for the British to this day, with over 57,000 casualties and almost 20,000 of those being deaths.

Reminders of those losses are still visible to this day, in the forms of cemetaries for all those who lost their lives in battle. The large majority of them are for the British forces, and are bright white, like this one for the Indian soldiers, that was just across from my hotel:There are also a few French ones, though they usually have less pomp and circumstance:And then there are the German ones, which are dark and austere, with a slightly menacing feel:All these reminders of war and sadness can be a bit depressing, so luckily there are some other, more uplifting things to see in the area. Like the château that is in the town where I normally stay (though it has now been turned into a military museum):Or the fact that on the way to my customer, I drive by a sign pointing to towns named "Brie" and "Ham" straight ahead. Like I joked on Facebook, the only one missing was "Bread"!Or these funny scarecrows:There would usually be one per gigantic field, which made me wonder how effective they really were, but they still make me smile. They're like the last-man standing in a world of bells and whistles and modern technology.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Oneika said...

Wow! The scarecrow looks so neat!

June 24, 2011 at 10:36 PM  
Blogger shannon said...

After 3 years of walking by a sign with "Ham" on it, I'm still very very amused by it.

June 24, 2011 at 10:56 PM  

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