France Travel Stories

Lest we Forget...

In 1918 the Great War was dubbed ‘the war to end all wars’. Out of all the bloody, unjust and pointless wars in the history of the world, how horrific and destructive this one must have been to eclipse all other wars. Countries from every continent intervened in Europe where the combatants mobilized all their military, industrial and human resources in a scale that was never thought possible. No one really knows for sure how many people died in World War I but historians estimate that 10 million men died in the battlefields. It is in those same battlefields that commemorative monuments stand today in remembrance of the fallen, where many visitors still lament to themselves: how did this happen?

Trenches, Vimy, France

As David raced us from Arras to the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge, I wondered what Canadians had to do with this whole European affair in 1914. Instead of asking, I allowed David to focus on his frantic driving and gazed out the window as I realized how little I knew about all this.

The site at Vimy Ridge looked more like a small national park. The quiet road ran through a wooded area with tall thick trunks that I would’ve thought were Sequoias were we not in northern France. Sheep in small herds were grazing everywhere, blissfully unsuspecting that the red signs posted everywhere warned of un-detonated explosives.

The trees suddenly cleared revealing open land; green meadows and farmlands, as well as towns from miles away could be seen from this very spot. This was Vimy Ridge. No wonder it was such an important battle: gaining control of this stretch of land would give the occupier a panoptic view of the surrounding land, hence being able to defend and attack with an advantage. But it wasn’t the strategic geography that took us aback, it was the compelling view of the memorial at the peak of the ridge that silenced us. - france, vimy