Eurostar, whizzing past the cemeteries...

[phil andrade]

Having enjoyed a lovely Eurostar break in Paris, watching the football in exciting circumstances, I wanted to comment on how profoundly moved I was to see a few CWGC cemeteries flick past as we literally whizzed by at speeds in excess of 100mph.

Those cememteries are always moving to behold, especially for Pals like us, but to see them in a "blink it and miss" moment somehow amplifies the impact.

I found myself quite chocked up for a moment, a little cast down, and my wife asked me what was wrong : to my shame, I felt a little bit embarrassed at the intensity of the feeling, and failed to do justice in my explanation.

The contrast between the lovely life we lead at the moment, with a high tech achievement allowing us to rush from London to Paris in hardly more than a couple of hours, with the fate of our grandparents, many of whom ended up in those graves, certainly gives us cause for reflection.

That would be a good thing to chronicle, wouldn't it ? Maybe it's already been done. A pamphlet, a poem, or some kind of commentary, on the story of those cemeteries that flash past us as we drink champagne on the Eurosater.

Phil

[SteveMarsdin]

Good morning Phil,

If "Eurosater" was a Freudian slip, you'll also no doubt be able to catch a glimpse of some WW1 sites when this year's Tour de France passes near Antwerp, and a few stages later, journeys from Cambrai to Reims (for example).

Check www.letour.fr for the route.

[Moriaty]

Hibers Trench cwgc is passed just after Eurostar passes Lille, it is very close to the railway track.

[phil andrade]

Good morning Phil,

If "Eurosater" was a Freudian slip,

Oh, dear....you've really got me there : I feel no end of a jerk ...it has a certain panache, though.

Phil

[ianw]

yes, I have noted them with pride on my own trips.

I will particularly look out for them when I go by Eurostar to Lille for the Fromelles ceremony in July.

[Steven Broomfield]

Personally, if you want a poem written from a railway carriage, Robert Louis Stevenson can't be bettered:

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And here is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart runaway in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill, and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone forever!

I'm not sure it needs a special poem. The Victorians normally have a quote somewhere

[ianw]

That's a good 'un , Steve - and that last line - "Each a glimpse and gone forever!" Cracking.

[angelab]

Lovely to read that poem again, Steve. Thanks for posting it in its entirety.

Phil, I know just what you mean about the choked-up feeling as you glimpse the cemeteries from the train. I did a page on what can be seen from Eurostar (I actually took a map with me on one trip, so I could be sure of where I was!) - but concentrating more on the Calais-Lille leg, here.

Angela

[Michelle Young]

Not done the Eurostar journey but at Easter on the way down to the Aisne saw a lot from the A26 and on previous journeys have done my best to identify them.

Michelle

[Seadog]

The same feelings affect me when driving the French Autoroute back to the Port. Seeing some really small War Cemeteries pass by in seemingly isolated locations gives me the almost unbearable desire to turn off at the next junction and visit them. On the subject of the Tour de France the most moving scenes that I remember are the ones when the Tour passes through the Verdun battlefield. All is silent as the pelaton glides through.

Regards

Norman

[LesCroft]

Ok here is a tester!

I always know I'm nearly 'there' when I pass a service station on the A1 (the Bapaume junction is next) there is a cemetery inbetween the motorway and the railway. I've never visited the cemetery but it always touches me when I see it in it's little awkward position.

Can anyone tell me the name of the cemetery?

Les

[angelab]

Reckon it must be L'Homme Mort cemetery, at Ecoust St Mein.

I would send the Google Maps ref, if only I could find out how to insert one of those clever marker thingys.

Angela

[LesCroft]

Reckon it must be L'Homme Mort cemetery, at Ecoust St Mein.

I would send the Google Maps ref, if only I could find out how to insert one of those clever marker thingys.

Angela

Looking at Google Maps that'sthe closest town!

Very fast and I'm very impressed!

[PBI]

The Late Leo McKern also echos PJAs feelings and sentiments and those from subsquent posters,in His Famous BBC Documentary "The Battle of the Somme"

[bluedog]

Thanks to you Russ , I have a copy

Peter

[angelab]

... Very fast and I'm very impressed!

Aha, Les... I can't claim all the credit though.

I have the excellent cemetery-location POI on my TomTom satnav, thanks to forum member Braunston Bruce.

See thread here

So I just fired up my (portable) satnav, and opened GoogleEarth on my computer at the same time, and it was easy to pinpoint the cemetery just south of the motorway services.

Thanks again, Bruce!

Angela

[LesCroft]

Aha, Les... I can't claim all the credit though.

I have the excellent cemetery-location POI on my TomTom satnav, thanks to forum member Braunston Bruce.

See thread here

So I just fired up my (portable) satnav, and opened GoogleEarth on my computer at the same time, and it was easy to pinpoint the cemetery just south of the motorway services.

Thanks again, Bruce!

Angela

Nah, you're getting the credit for initiative!

[angelab]

Aw, thanks Les...

Angela

[salesie]

Having enjoyed a lovely Eurostar break in Paris, watching the football in exciting circumstances, I wanted to comment on how profoundly moved I was to see a few CWGC cemeteries flick past as we literally whizzed by at speeds in excess of 100mph.

Those cememteries are always moving to behold, especially for Pals like us, but to see them in a "blink it and miss" moment somehow amplifies the impact.

I found myself quite chocked up for a moment, a little cast down, and my wife asked me what was wrong : to my shame, I felt a little bit embarrassed at the intensity of the feeling, and failed to do justice in my explanation.

The contrast between the lovely life we lead at the moment, with a high tech achievement allowing us to rush from London to Paris in hardly more than a couple of hours, with the fate of our grandparents, many of whom ended up in those graves, certainly gives us cause for reflection.

That would be a good thing to chronicle, wouldn't it ? Maybe it's already been done. A pamphlet, a poem, or some kind of commentary, on the story of those cemeteries that flash past us as we drink champagne on the Eurosater.

Phil

Not that we can ever hope to compete with Stevenson, Phil, but here's a little ditty reflecting on the juxtaposition of the Eurostar and CWGC cemeteries. Perhaps pals would like to add their own couplets - you never know what might develop?

Eurostar – Eurowar

Air-conditioned boxes with double the glass,

White slabs in rows set in neatly trimmed grass.

Sipping champagne and thinking of home,

Names neatly hewn into white, soft stone.

Life's too short can afford no delay,

Life's extinct now recovered from fray.

Cheers-salesie.

[ianw]

Thinking a bit guiltily about going in great comfort to Fromelles on Eurostar in 2 weeks :-

Fromelles and home, all in one day

Passing the places where heroes lay

Through a land at peace with no borders

No longer in thrall to military orders

I come and go totally free

Enjoying the life that their blood bought me

Each stone a life completed never

All to be thanked and remembered forever