Wednesday 20th June Verdun

After a breakfast of pecan crumble, stracciotelli yoghurt and poached eggs on toast, we set off on the steeds for the verdun memorial museum some 7 Kms away. The battle of verdun took place outside the town and there was actually never any fighting within the town. We started climbing after less than a km and we climbed and climbed. The crew was magnificent. We actually climbed the whole 7 Kms. It was bloody hard but we made it although it took an hour and a half. The whole trip was through dense forest which I found at odds with my recollection of pictures from the battle which showed a barren moonscape wasteland.

We stopped at the maginot memorial as much for a rest as anything else. We both stood open mouthed as a tall black athlete appeared from nowhere loping up the hill clearly faster than we could ride it. We just looked at each other and shook our heads.

The museum was excellent. We learnt about the villages which had been completely obliterated by millions of shells which had fallen and how these villages had been left as sacred ground and each had a mayor responsible for maintaining them as a reminder.

Just 500m past the museum we came to fleury. One such village. They had built a chapel there where the church had originally been and the streets had been marked with white concrete posts. There were little notices telling you who's house stood here and their trade. We then noticed that although thick with trees the ground was grassy but a mass of craters. It was suddenly very moving.

On the chapel was a picture of the street before the war. I took a picture of it.

Then a picture of the street now.

We headed for the Dourmont ossuary where there are The skeleton remains of 130,000 French and German killed in the verdun battle and the cemetery bears the crosses of over 16000 frenchmen making it the biggest French war cemetery. You can go down into the ossuary and view the Bones piled up in great vaults but I found this a tad distasteful if not disrespectful so we strolled amongst the field of crosses and left for home with a shocking feeling of pointless waste only to be depressed even further by the fact that tonights news would prove that lessons are never learned and this was just another conflict in the catalogue that is humanitarian history.

We had a very rapid descent down the 7 Kms to Verdun and back to Doucette via Leclerc for vittals. It was just enormous and we have pledged to avoid these mega supermarche like the plague from now on. it takes 15mins to walk from the entrance to the first food isle. You are then frightened of selecting anything because of the sheer volume of choice. Bit like ordering in the curry house these days!

Had a nice cobbed dinner using the other half of yesterday's pork joint and some sausages with a courgette onion and tomato bake, new potatoes. 1664s and merlot while clo hit the bubbles. It was a glorious evening and the officers quarters opposite with the memorial just across the way looked fantastic from the poop and made you realise how lucky we were to be in verdun in 2012 and not 1917.

Reflected on the day, had enjoyed it immensely even if a little depressing really. More to come tomorrow though so pulled myself together and offered the temple to the crew.