France Travel Stories
How to save money in French food markets
War history has never been my cup of tea, particularly the World Wars of the early 20th Century. I've studied them in school just like everyone else; I even had to write my senior paper on World War 2, but I never fully enjoyed it as I enjoyed other aspects of History. So much so, that everything I learned back then, I have now completely forgotten. So when Uncle Davros and his Lucy invited Ed and I for a weekend touring the major battlefields of World War I in Belgium and France, I wasn't as excited as I usually get.
Nonetheless, I was quite eager to get back in touch with the Belgian blood that ran through my veins so while Ed and David organized everything, Lucy and I fantasized of cherry beer and Belgian chocolate, and waited for Saturday morning to arrive.
 We met with Lucy and David at 3:30 am Saturday morning (which meant Ed and I didn't get any sleep, but David and Lucy were as fresh as cabbages) and loaded Davo's car for the trip. I sat through the drive to Folkestone in Kent under the impression that we were taking a ferry over to France and then drive over to Belgium. Since Ed kept the trip a secret from me, I wasn't aware of the details of the journey, so when I was told we were actually going by train this surprised me, mainly because I had no idea that a train crossed the English Channel unto France. The Euro Tunnel runs not under water, but under the earth itself and transports vehicles from England to France and vice versa in just 35 minutes. Incredible.
We reached Calais at around 7:30am, one hour ahead of London time. It wasn't too sunny but every so often there was a swift break in the clouds which gave relief to the ice cold wind. You'd think that by mid June it'd already start getting warm in northern Europe...but no.
Our first stop was Arras, a town in northern France which was just beginning to awaken. There were hardly any people in the streets let alone cars, so parking was sorted out in a jiffy. We crossed the empty town square surrounded by old buildings which all had the same structure. To me, the architecture was clearly influenced by the Flemish, with their typical angular tiered roofs, and being so close to Flanders, it made perfect sense. continue
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