healdav Posted 2 May , 2005 Share Posted 2 May , 2005 I was at Hermonville yesterday (to collect champagne) and the cemetery there is very rarely visited. The last entry in the register was 2004. The cemetery is very small - about 250 graves, I think most of them unknowns. The majority are from the DLI, Norfolk Fusiliers, machine Gun Corps and REs. One officer's grave is intriguing ' thought to be'. I wonder why they weren't certain either way? Anyway, if you are in the area of berry au bac Hermonville is just a few kilometres away towards Rheims. Berry au Bac itself has nothing at all (except a French cemetery), but there is a very good restaurant Côte 107 or 108 (I always forget which). This was the French code for the hillside there. You can't miss it as it's on the main road near the cemetery. Hermonville has little but the cemetery and champagne houses. It's a hard life. The champagne is excellent and a fraction of the price they charge in Rheims.Most of the places in hermnoville and the adjoining villages only sell to private customers as they don't produce enough even for commercial sale - and its always aperitif time. Anyway, go off the beaten track and have a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 2 May , 2005 Share Posted 2 May , 2005 http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/Cemeteries/HERMONVILLEMC.htm Was there last month (I never sign guestbooks) Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 2 May , 2005 Share Posted 2 May , 2005 French joke : How can you tell a poor champagne prpducer? He's the one who has to wash his own BMW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 2 May , 2005 Share Posted 2 May , 2005 I have been to the restaurant, really good, a bit fancy. THere are a lot of trench remains nearby, a pill box and there was a Luftwaffe base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham-McAdam Posted 2 May , 2005 Share Posted 2 May , 2005 (I never sign guestbooks) Why, Marco? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 2 May , 2005 Share Posted 2 May , 2005 Because they get thrown away when full, I like my anonymity, and I rather spend my time doing what I came for. Thats just me though. Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Best Posted 3 May , 2005 Share Posted 3 May , 2005 Marco Because they get thrown away when full, I like my anonymity It is my understanding that the Visitors' Books help CWGC deduce information on visitor numbers and thus advise their annual reports and funding bids. There was a nonsense a few years ago when the MoD considered reducing British workers salaries - so cogent cases for funding are essential to CWGC. In addition, Pilgrims' comments (and often direct thanks to staff) serve as welcome feedback for those gardeners who read the books. Chris PS: Like your web site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 3 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 3 May , 2005 The restaurnt is, to be honest, not as good in my opinion as it was up to a couple of years ago. The couple who ran it then were superb (he was invited - with others to cook for a special dinner offered by France for the Queen's jubilee in 1976). They have now retired and the young couple who have taken over are very pleasant and excellent cooks, but they try a bit too hard. He was apparently trained in the USA and he just does too much. Shows off, in other words. Butdon't let it put you off. It is still excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted 3 May , 2005 Share Posted 3 May , 2005 I visited Hermonville last September and like Marco didn't sign the guestbook, more forgetfullness than anything else. My wife and I stayed at the Royal Champagne in Chalons En Champagne which is about 20 miles south of Reims, it is very nice if a little pricey and you can be assured that it wouldn't let riff-raff like Mr Guthrie in. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 3 May , 2005 Share Posted 3 May , 2005 and you can be assured that it wouldn't let riff-raff like Mr Guthrie in. andy Oh the ignominy of insult from that cad the EvilAndymax! They not only let us in, we came bearing battlefield mud to a white table cloth restaurant! The great seducer of young Kentucky maids will rue the day when he returns! Tarred and feathered and rode out of Laurel County on a rail denied his wish for just one Weaver's chili dog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 3 May , 2005 Share Posted 3 May , 2005 Hello, a photograph of Hermonville Cemetery. I was there last year and I am pretty sure I signed the vistors book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 3 May , 2005 Share Posted 3 May , 2005 There are a number of other British - and German - cemeteries worth visting in the area of the Aisne, especially Vailly and La Ville au Bois. I am not an expert on champagne, but the white wine you can buy at the chateau in Craonelle ( just south of the Chemin des Dames ridge) is superb ( I maybe sticking my neck out here) it is a lot cheaper than champagne, but being 5 miles north of the Aisne- and therefore just outside the champagne region, it cannot have that particular accolate bestowed on it. I would recommend the Mercure hotel at Chamouville, fairly pricey but good for a brief family visit- Eurodisney is not to far away. There is plenty to see on the Chemin des Dames of Great War interest, from both 1914 and 1918 in respect of the BEF. Regards David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 3 May , 2005 Share Posted 3 May , 2005 It's La Ville Au Bois I have visited a couple of times, not Hermonville and the trenches and pill box are quite close by. Just across the road from the cemetery is the former Luftwaffe base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris basey Posted 5 May , 2005 Share Posted 5 May , 2005 healdav Your post on May 2nd inadvertently attributed graves in Hermonville Cemetery to "Norfolk" Fusiliers! A slip of the fingers - should, of course, have been "Northumberland". Momentarily thought there was a local regiment that I had missed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
East Lancs Posted 24 May , 2005 Share Posted 24 May , 2005 WW1 Cemeteries.com We visited the Chemin de Dames region in July last year and visited the pretty cemetery at Hermonville on 18/07/04, (see link) the cemetery path is in the shape of a cross, this is a beautiful and rarely visited part of the battlefield, there are some beautiful cemeteries in the region like Vendresse British, Courmas and Perreuse Chateau. Not only is it Champagne region it is a lovely place to spend a few days. http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww1frenchceme...hermonville.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euking Posted 29 May , 2005 Share Posted 29 May , 2005 I was happy that my group of mainly French schoolkids (from the school where I teach in France) spontaneously went to sign the visitors book at Blighty Valley once I had told them that such documents exist in British Commonwealth cemeteries... I cherish this photo in my collection of phots taken on trips. It was a very cold day in Dec and the ground was partly frozen. euking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ypres1418 Posted 30 May , 2005 Share Posted 30 May , 2005 I have to say that my children alsways sign when we go in to the cemeteries and sometimes there is a dash for who can get there first, I believe that in signing, it helpes to keep the smaller ones where they are and not to be concentrated into the bigger ones now that the young farmers are asking for the land back. Mandy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisN Posted 6 June , 2005 Share Posted 6 June , 2005 I too always sign the visitor book (if I remember to take a pen or pencil), and I always ask my guests to sign as well. I feel this is particulary important at the smaller, more out of the way locations. I must say I am a little concerned to hear that people are asking for their land back. I am under the impression the land was given as a gift 'in perpituity', and that means what it says... thoughts? Regards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 6 June , 2005 Share Posted 6 June , 2005 Mandy, I must say I was a bit alarmed too when I read that some young farmers are asking the land back. I must say I was not aware of that. Certainly not in my area (Ypres). Did you have Ypres in mind or France ? And this brings me to another thing I find alarming. I took it from a Dutch discussion forum, where this issue came forward. About the vistors' books themselves : What happens to them afterwards ? I learned that as soon as the cemetery books are full, they are ... destroyed. (I was quite disappointed because I intended for a speciific cemetery in my area to have a look at them, of recent years, hoping to find interesting data, like : next of kin, etc.) Can anybody confirm that indeed they are destroyed ? It seems that there used to be a time that they were kept and sent to Arras (?), for some statistical analysis, but since they are not representative with regard to the number of visitors this is no longer done. Aurel (Of course I could go and ask CWGC in Ypres) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan_J Posted 6 June , 2005 Share Posted 6 June , 2005 Aurel, This came up in another thread recently see here. Whilst the ones from the Somme may go to Peronne, it wasn't clear what happens to others - it would be a great shame if they are just destroyed...... Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurel Sercu Posted 7 June , 2005 Share Posted 7 June , 2005 Thanks, Alan. The topic was on at the same time in both Forums, I see now. (And to my shame I must say I had joined the British topic myself too.... That short term memory (or absence of it) is playing me tricks again... Aurel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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