10 Days Project
Graves of the unknown at Vimy Ridge.
The 25th was Vimy Day. We toured around in the Arras sector and ended the day with several hours of touring and discussion at Vimy Ridge.
One of the highlights of the day was Jesse MacLeod's presentation on his great grandfather Sergeant Major John MacLeod who was killed during fighting around Arras in 1917. As Jesse candidly shared, the tragedy of Sergeant Major MacLeod's death inevitably lead to his birth and has intrinsically connected him to a man he is generations removed from.
Read MoreDay three brought us out of the Ypres salient and into the Somme valley region. The day began with a trip to a little visited Portuguese cemetery, then onto the wonderful Historial de la Grand Guerre museum in Péronne.
Read MoreSo its been a few eventful, painful days. We made it to Amsterdam on the evening of the 20th and met up with a group of students from Wilfrid Laurier University. Aside from working on the 10 Days project, we are in France to participate in the battlefield tour portion of a War and Memory course offered at Laurier in the summer semester. Matt is one of the professors and I am along to participate but not as a graded student, just as a member of LCMSDS staff.
Read MoreToday was a bit of a day off. The weather was not favorable so Matt, our friend Caitlin (who arrived last evening) and I decided to take the day to adventure as we headed for Amsterdam. After some conversation we decided it would be neat if we could find the monument to the December truce of 1914. In brief, during the first Christmas of The Great War, there are stories of British and German troops exchanging gifts and playing football (soccer) on Christmas day 1914 in the Ypres salient. Not exactly sure exactly where there was a commemoration of these occurrences were we headed to Ypres to see Steve Douglas.
Read MoreToday was a rain day, and while it did mess up plans for one image we decided to take the extra time in between our other planned photos to explore a few sites for leisure.
Read MoreNick Lachance and Matt Symes photograph 'Mother Canada" at Vimy Ridge
As soon as we hit the road today it started pouring rain. Unable to go forward with some of our photos, we decided to take a few detours.
One of them was to the South African memorial at Delville Wood. A truly fantastic, tranquil place, Delville still has many visible remnants of war which were rather difficult to photograph so I made a short video.
In the evening cloud cover broke and we were finally able to get a sunset. Being at home base in Arras we booked it over to Vimy Ridge and the results were nothing short of fantastic. I wish I could show you them but I have to keep a few secrets up my sleeve.
