Les Flâneurs: Ieper

This past Monday we left Lille for Flanders Fields in Belgium. Our friends Richard and Pauline drove over from England and picked us up at the MacD's apartment. They arrived a few minutes before 2pm just as I was going downstairs to keep watch for their red Ford Focus.

After a round of hugs and helloes (we introduced them to Christina) followed immediately by a round of hugs and goodbyes, the four of us were packed into the car and soon heading north into Belgium. Our first stop was to drop our bags at the Hotel Callecanes, just across the border in Watou, Belgium.

After checking in and taking a short break we returned to the car and made our way to Ieper (in French Ypres) where we arrived just in time to catch the "Last Post" at the Menin Gate inside the centre ville. Originally the fortified eastern entrance to the city the gate was rebuilt in 1927 as a Memorial to the more than 54,000 Commonwealth dead who were killed during the various battles of Ypres and whose graves are unknown. The road that passes beneath was the route Allied soldiers took to the front.

After the parade of the pipers from the city square to the arch and the laying of wreaths by several pairs of individuals buglers played the Last Post.(see the video a the end of the post) There were, I should guess, 150-200 people in attendance of this short but moving event, which is performed every evening at 8pm (2000).

After the ceremony we found a place on the town square (Leshalles) for a fashionably late dinner before making our way back to the hotel.

even the young children were caught up in this

After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel the four of us drove (well actually Richard drove with three tagging along) back into Ieper. Our objective was to pay a visit to the In Flanders Fields Museum. Located in the very grand Cloth Hall -- destroyed along the entire town during the war and rebuilt after -- this museum was worth the trip to France.

Upon entry to the museum each visitor receives a poppy bracelet with a microchip inside, which activates the chosen language for the visitor. The history of the war, particularly in Ypres are told with incredible poignancy through personal stories across several nationalities. The use of interactive media was, we all thought, very well done and quite engaging.

As one might expect, the displays include medical equipment, gas masks, uniforms, and a mule and munitions wagon exhibit. Yet the journey through the museum and thus through history of the war, also focused on the consequences of war.

It was generally agreed that the layout of the museum was superb and very well thought out -- you moved ever forward to the finish but without feeling steered in any specific direction; it just seem to happen. Even though there were many visitors in the museum when we were there -- including a very large group of teenagers -- one never felt crowded. Oh, and speaking of children, I must say that the respect, interest and engagement on the faces of those kids was impressive.

Before exiting there was a large room, a secondary exhibition as it were, covering writing about the great war. One could sit and read samples from works in several languages. This was truly the capstone to the museum.

After leaving the museum we went in search of lunch -- just around the corner as it turned out. Near the Ieper monument to it's local dead we sat outside at the Allegria Cafe where we were waited on by the most unhappy 12-year-old boy. The food matched his temperament, I'm afraid: not very good.

After lunch we paid a second visit to the Menin Gate Memorial to see it in daylight this time.

From Ieper we made our way to the Commonwealth Memorial and cemetery of Tyne Cot. Like so many Commonwealth cemeteries (there are som 410 of them along the Somme) this one was opened on the battlefield itself (remains of a bunker lie at the very center of the cemetery beneath the flagpole). It is also one of four Commonwealth memorials to the missing in Belgium and is oday the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world: 11,961 known burials and another 8,373 graves are listed as unknowns; another 35,000 names of soldiers whose graves are unknown are inscribed on the sweeping wall of the memorial.

From Tyne Cot we then drove to the German cemetery at Langemarck. The contrast to Tyne Cot was striking. Where the first was full of light and openness, the German space was dark and somber, almost claustrophobic. The cemetery contains more than 44,000 graves, of which 24,917 men are buried in en masse in the Comrades' Grave. The village of Langemark also holds the dubious distinction of being the scene for the first gas attack by the Germans in April of 1915.

That evening we ate dinner at Markt 38 in Poperinge, Belgium.