Day 26 - 22 April 2019 Monday - Drive from Amiens to Ypres via Etaples 

I used to come to Belgium to visit the battlefields now I come here for the prawn croquettes and beer.

Anyway before I get to the croquettes and beer I have to get to Belgium, Ypres in particular.

I have decided to drive to Ypres via the French town of Etaples.  Etaples is a town on the English Channel and was the site of probably the major support, supply and medical facility for the British army in France during TGW.  At any one time there would have been 10 of thousands of British (including Australian) troops in the area including up to 20 military hospitals.  Etaples was also the site for the infamous 'Bull Ring'.  When the British soldiers were returning to the the front from hospitals or long leaves in England they had to pass through one of the 'toughening up' camps in Etaples.  One of these camps was known as the 'Bull Ring' and was well known for its iron discipline and onerous physical activities.  The closest that the British military came to a mutiny occurred at Etaples due to the harsh treatment of the troops there by the staff of the Bull Ring.

As with many of these sites the only thing remaining from TGW is the Etaples military cemetery.  Given the area was the location for a number of military hospitals the cemetery here is massive, over 11,000 graves including soldiers and support people from all over Britain, the Dominions, India and even one lonely grave of a Chinese labourer and a number of German graves.  Surprisingly there are only 450 Australians buried here, given the numbers I would have thought there would have been more.  I thought that there was an Australian hospital in Etaples so I wonder where the  deceased from this hospital are buried.  A little research project for later on.

There are also a small number of graves from the 2nd WW including a RAAF crew member who died in this area in 1943.

After a little time here, back in the Peugot 2008 for an easy 150km drive to Ypres.  I arrived at about 1.45pm and my room at the Novotel wasn't ready, so park the car and zoooooooom around the corner to the market square and by 2.00 I was ordering a Passchendaele beer and shrimp croquettes for lunch.  Delicious!

After lunch I visited the tourist information centre and picked up some info for my proposed foray to the northern battlefields tomorrow.

Ypres is a lovely little city and it is impossible to believe that what you see is almost entirely rebuilt after TGW.

Fun Fact: After TGW Winston Churchill wanted to leave Ypres in ruins as a memorial to the TGW (another of Winnie's better ideas?), anyway the locals thought differently and returned to their town and started to rebuild.

Step count: 7,895

Observation:  If Trumpy wants to find out how to build a fence he should send someone to Calais.  During my drive I bypassed Calais but you should see the fences around the railway lines, trucking depots etc.