France 2013

One of my memories as a child is the family talking about a French town, Villers-Bretonneux, where my paternal grandfather, Samuel Charles Spencer, was wounded in April 1918, as he fought in WWI. Margaret and I finally achieved our desire to visit the town when we visited France in 2013.

	For details on grandpa Spencer's war experiences click on this link The main Australian war memorial in France is located at Villers-Bretonneux. The photograph at left shows the two major features of the memorial, the cross and the tower. The photo below (left) is taken from the War Memorial and shows Villers-Bretonneux across the valley. The school in the village houses a museum and the school yard has a sign "Do not forget Australia" as can be seen in the photo below (right.
	We visited many more locations on the battlefields tour, including some where trenches had been preserved, as shown at left. Margaret and I stayed near the Gare du Nord in Paris and I posted the photo, from our hotel window, shown below (left) on Facebook. I was surprised to find a Facebook message from my cousin, Suzanne Cook, to say that it was the same as from her window. We were all staying in the same hotel! We spent some time together particularly in our favourite bar on the corner of our street (photo bottom right).
	Brian, Michaela, Margaret and Suzanne sharing an afternoon drink.
Our hotel was within walking distance of Montmartre. We visited Sacre Coeur cathedral, and I climbed the stairs to the viewing area, which provided great panoramas of Paris. Margaret spent some time shopping in some of the side streets of Montmartre.