Marple Remembers - 2003
The Ypres Salient
By Ian Rice

Day 3 p2 Tommy Bar

THURSDAY 18th APRIL 2003 (Day 4)

T he early departure meant an unwelcome start to the day for some of the football fans in the party. Despite the match ending in a draw they seem to have celebrated well into the night and would have preferred a slower, later start to the day. Nonetheless, shortly after 08.00 we departed from Ypres and started on the short journey back across the French border to Calais and the Channel Tunnel.

But first there was a stop at Cité Europe. This had been promised last year but not delivered so it was good that this year Andy and Pete were able to honour their promise. I was able to stock up on wine and some good French cheeses and even on my favourite tripe sausages, andouillettes. To complete my day the supermarket had a promotion on snails so a dozen of these went into the trolley too. I was amused to notice that the French wines are all at one end of the building while the wines of the rest of the world are displayed at the other extreme so as not to contaminate the native labels.

After a final beer and having bought a sausage sandwich for lunch we were back on the coach. But not gone. Two members of the party had not set their watches correctly and had to be found by a search party.

Despite this delay we arrived at the Tunnel much earlier than expected. This proved not to be a problem and we boarded and departed at 11.45, UK time, more than an hour early. By 12.20 we were disembarking in England. Then came the traffic jams. A combination of good weather, an early start to the Easter get-away and a train strike seemed to have brought the motorway system to a virtual standstill. Brian, the driver, did all he could to mitigate the situation but progress was unavoidably slow. We passed the time by attempting a couple of Jack's quizzes and watching seemingly endless episodes of Blackadder Goes Forth on video.

It was getting on for 20.00 when the coach finally pulled up in Marple. Rapidly it was emptied and just as quickly the various members of the party dispersed to their homes. It had been an enjoyable and fascinating trip, made all the better by the wonderful weather we experienced throughout the trip. Pete's organisation and Andy's ability to bring history to life kept us all going even when tiredness (and hangovers) meant that we might have preferred simply to relax in the sun rather than trudge round another cemetery or battlefield.


The 'Marple Pals' at Vancouver Corner April 2003

 

Day 3 p2 bar.gif (292 bytes) Tommy Bar

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