2025 Tour Day 27 - Vimy

We got sun!

We packed up and left our cows, after a night of incredible rain and wind. The tent stayed up and (pretty much) dry.

It is Sunday so we had to focus on getting food early in the day, otherwise everything is closed. We also see small towns with BIG Sunday markets, we know because we cycle by cars parked along the road for literally a kilometer. 

The purpose of the day was Vimy.

France granted the land at Vimy Ridge to Canada in perpetuity (in 1922). 

We came to see the Canadian National Vimy Memorial .

What we learned. 

In April 1917, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first time, at Vimy Ridge. The ridge was taken by Canadian troops after four days of intense fighting (April 9-12). 

The monument was designed by Canadian architect and sculptor, Walter Seymour Allward, inspired by a dream. 

It took 11 years to build.

The front of the monument faces out towards the ridge, you approach the monument from the back. 

The topmost figure, the Peace figure, is approximately 110 meters (360 feet) above the Douai Plain to the east, thanks to the height of the base and the ridge on which it stands. 

 

One pillar has maple leaves. Canada. 

The other has the fleur-de-lys. France. 

 

On the top of the pillars, eight fugues represent the universal values for which soldiers fought and died: Faith, Hope, Honour, Charity, Peace, Knowledge, Justice, Truth. 

We had a quiet time to reflect, very few visitors today. 

 

This is the front of the monument, looking out over the Ridge. 

This figure, Canada Bereft, represents a young nation mourning the dead (at the time, Canada's population was less than eight million, and WWI took over 66,000 Cdn lives, and left 172,000 wounded). 

Here you can see the figures of Sacrifice and Perseverance, inspired by the poem, In Flanders Fields (Cdn Army Medical Corps doctor, Lieutenant - Colonel John McCrae). 

 

Carved into the walls are the names of over 11,200 Canadians who died in France and whose final resting place was (at the monuments making) unknown. They are engraved around the base, alphabetically and by rank. 

It is pretty powerful. 

The grounds of the Vimy Memorial are beautifully preserved. There are trenches to tour, and many craters can still be seen in the fields and forests. 

Proud. 

Sad. 

Our afternoon ride took us away from fields and through towns, like suburbs stretching for miles. Clearly there was mining here as the slag heaps were highly visible. They have now been embraced for hiking and nature preserves. 

We are on our way to Ypres. We stopped at a little Municipal Campground at about the 60k mark.  

It is quite something. 

It has a community (stocked) fishing pond. 

Very popular!

And we are so happy to have our tent up in the SUN. It is still very windy but we will exchange the rain for wind for now. 

We read the reviews about the campground, and many of them had such positive reviews about Chantal, the woman who manages the restaurant and "volunteers" for the campground. 

Indeed she is lovely. 

Has been to Canada and loved it, wants to go back. 

This is truly a labour of love and she hand wrote the receipt, carefully charging us the small amounts for tax (0.20), water (0.35), our tent (1.90), and two adults at the bargain price of 1.15 each. 

We are not at the Hyatt anymore! 😍

Strava stats. 

Flanders fields await.