Day 22 - 18 April 2019 Thursday -Amiens

Early part of the day is taken up with a visit to the Hertz depot in the industrial backblocks of Amiens to arrange for the transfer to a new vehicle.  Again not much English spoken and after some discussion and phone calls to Hertz HQ somewhere I am on my way in a little Peugeot 2008, a far more practical vehicle around these parts.

A nice warm spring day and I am off to the new Sir John Monash Centre (SJMC) at the Australian National Memorial (ANM) at Villers Bretonneux (VB).  

I arrived at the ANM at VB and it was a hive of activity, they were making preparations for the Anzac Day dawn service next week.  There were people setting up chairs, by the 100, putting in wiring for sound systems and lighting, putting up tents and gazebos, signs telling you where to go if you were a VIP and so on. I wonder how many DVA, ADF and DFAT people are going to get a nice little junket out of this, not to mention the politicians.

Anyway the SJMC is located behind the ANM and below ground level so it doesn't intrude on the ANM aspect or vista.  The first thing to remember is that the SJMC is not a museum, it is, in the current vernacular, an interpretive centre.  It is designed so that if you walk in the front door knowing nothing or little about Australia's involvement on the Western front in TGW you walk out the other end knowing and understanding a lot more, and to this end I think that it works.  There are very few cases with items on display and of the ones that are there they contain relics that were dug up during the building of the centre.

Entrance to SJMC

Most of the information is presented in large scale audio visual presentations that are driven by the viewer, how this would work if the place was busy I don't know, but when I was there it was very quiet.  The actual exhibition space is quite small, however by using the A/V system the amount of information that can be presented is immense but it is in logical sequence and easy to use and follow.  (For those of you who don't know, the audio aspects are presented to the listener via a mobile phone app that worked without a hitch for me, although I understand that others have experienced difficulties with this.

Interior SJMC

I saw the tapestry that had been hanging at the Shrine for a while.  It is hanging over the main entrance however is not very conspicuous and easily missed which is a pity given it is a fine piece of work.

The big question is 'is it worth $100 million or could that money have been better spent.  I will leave that with you gentle reader to make up your own mind.

Despite all the work going on I decided to have a look around the ANM, and started by climbing the tower.  The ANM is the AIF's (Australian Imperial Force) principal memorial site on the Western front.  It is located near VB as many of the battles involving the AIF occurred in this area, and it is located near the Somme battlefields as well.  The Ancre battlefield where my grandfather was wounded in March 1918 is also nearby.

View from the tower inc Anzac Day preparations

The memorial is comprised of a central tower with an arm on either side and the names of thousands of Australian soldiers who died on the battlefields who have no known grave are inscribed on these walls.  The whole memorial is at the back of a British cemetery containing many Australian graves.

Anyway, back to climbing the tower, I reckon every time I come back here they have added a few more steps to the climb.  The views from the top of the tower are magnificent and you can see why the hill that it is built on was the scene of much fighting (he who held the high ground held the advantage).  For those of you reading your histories it was referred to as hill 104.

After spending a little time here and taking the obligatory photos I descended and paid my respects to the men of the 40th Battalion (my Grandfather's battalion and the only battalion in the AIF comprised entirely of Tasmanians) whose names appear on the wall.  I walked back through the cemetery to my car stopping along the way to pay my respects in the cemetery visitor's book and drove back to Amiens.

For those of you who may be interested I had a traditional French dinner, started with some stuffed olives a small amuse bouche (don't know how to spell it and don't care), duck pate wrapped in pastry with a small salad that include little pickled onions, main course was an entrecote (steak) that was requested cooked medium but would have been rare anywhere else in the world with frites and salad.  For drinks I had a G & T for starters, a small bottle of 2015 Chapelle De Brivazac Bordeaux and finished with an Irish coffee and a quick stagger back to my hotel.

The wi fi here is crap and makes downloading pics here problematic, will download some pics when able.

Fun Fact: Fashion here seems to be tight blue jeans, a bit short and white runners, any brand, and that is only the blokes.

Step Count: 9,037

Observation: All French wines still have corks, no screw caps here.