Today is 1918 Armistice Day (a holiday in France), marking the end of just over four years of absolute horror in the trenches, where three of VDP's great-grandfathers died (one French and two German). VDP visited Gonards cemetery on Allsaints (1 November), it was a glorious, warm, sunny autumn day and it had been a while since she last went, in 2009. This time, she walked all the way up the hill to see the German military graves. 534 German soldiers of both World Wars are buried here, including a few unknown ones. Sorry, this is going to be one of those slightly longer posts but lest we forget... and don't we seem to forget all too quickly?
Helmut Schmidt, who died yesterday and whom VDP greatly admired, said we need Europe as an institution for various reasons, one of them being to avoid war between European countries... He was so right. Schmidt: ''Um Gottes willen, diese Scheiße darf sich niemals wiederholen!' (For God's sake, this shit [meaning WWII] must never repeat itself!)
En ce jour d'Armistice de la Grande Guerre, (durant laquelle trois des arrière-grands-pères de VDP sont morts dans les tranchées, deux allemands et un français), ayons une pensée pour tous les soldats de toutes nationalités et confessions morts en Europe au XXème siècle. Le 1er novembre, il faisait beau et presque chaud, VDP s'est rendue au cimetière des Gonards où elle ne s'était plus promenée depuis 2009. Cette fois-ci, elle est montée en haut de la colline, jusqu'au cimetière militaire allemand où sont enterrés 534 soldats des deux guerres mondiales, dont quelques inconnus. Désolée, ce billet va être un peu long, mais n'oublions jamais... Comme le disait
Helmut Schmidt, décédé hier, dont VDP a lu plusieurs ouvrages et qu'elle admirait, nous avons besoin d'une Europe institutionnelle pour éviter la guerre entre pays européens... Il avait raison. "Um Gottes willen, diese Scheiße darf sich niemals wiederholen!" (Mon Dieu, cette merde ne doit jamais se reproduire !" a-t-il dit.)
'In this cemetery, 534 German soldiers are resting - 1914-1918 ; 1939-1940'
The white crosses you see behind the German ones in the above shot are tombs of French soldiers. Actually, all the tombs are white, except the German ones.
Les croix blanches que vous voyez ci-dessus derrière les tombes allemandes sont des tombes de soldats français. A vrai dire, toutes les tombes sont blanches, sauf les allemandes.
At Gonards cemetery, there is also a Muslim patch of World War I soldiers:
Il y a également un carré dédié aux soldats musulmans de la première guerre mondiale :
Of course, there are British/Commonwealth tombs (VDP had shown them before, and had chosen a few random ones to honour English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh men who died on French soil.
Click here to see the post).
Bien sûr, il y a aussi les tombes britanniques et du Commonwealth (VDP les avait montrées sur ce blog en 2009, et choisi à l'époque quatre tombes au hasard pour rendre hommage aux anglais, écossais, gallois et irlandais tombés en terre de France.
Cliquez ici pour voir ce billet).
Finally, there's a sea of 811 WWI and 75 WWII French soldiers buried here. Just one photo below, VDP had shown you several back in 2009, including the monument to the fallen,
click here to see them. Oh and VDP only noticed the car once she was back home...
Et pour finir, il y a beaucoup de soldats français enterrés ici. Juste une photo ci-dessous, VDP vous en avait montré plusieurs en 2009, y compris le monument aux morts,
cliquez ici pour les voir. Ah et VDP n'a remarqué la voiture qu'une fois rentrée à la maison...
The signs at the entrance of the cemetary:
Les panneaux à l'entrée du cimetière :
And for further war tomb pictures, you can
click here to see the Prussian tombs of the 1870 Franco-German war at Notre-Dame cemetery.
Et pour d'autres photos de tombes de guerre,
cliquez ici pour voir les tombes prussiennes de la guerre de 1870 au cimetière Notre-Dame.
There wasn't much going on at Saint-Louis cemetery until...
In Notre-Dame graveyard, some late blooming roses last weekend and a tree on fire!
So Tuesday was All Saint's. I went to Notre-Dame cemetary on Saturday in the hope of seeing the usual All Saint's sea of chrysanthemums. Instead, some old tombs caught my eye...
First day of the month is Theme Day: 'under construction'. So, last Sunday, I drove off in the car, I knew something under construction would be hard to find. Restoration or renovation would have been easy-peasy, but not construction. I drove, drove, drove and finally saw this scene in Notre-Dame neighbourhood. I believe there's a hole behind the construction fence destined to keep prying eyes and feet out. The blue door at the end of the street is Notre-Dame cemetary which you can find by clicking on the 'graveyard' label below. Happy June! Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
These little angels guard the tombs of toddlers who died in the 1940s.
'Tis holly time. This one stands above a very simple and quite old tomb at Gonards cemetery. This tomb I liked in all its simplicity because of the bench beside it.
An angel above a tomb at Gonards cemetary.
I took you to Gonards cemetary recently and said that I would have to go back because I hadn't found the celebrities tombs. That was a bit of a lie, because I had actually found one: Louis Blériot, the pioneer aviator who completed the first cross Channel flight in 1909.
Il y a quelques temps, je vous racontais ma promenade au cimetière des Gonards. Je disais n'y avoir pas trouvé les célébrités, ce qui était un peu un mensonge, puisque j'y ai trouvé au moins la tombe de Louis Blériot, premier homme à traverser la Manche en 1909 à bord d'un avion.
Yesterday I showed you the French World War I tombs. There are also a great many British soldiers whose tombs stand in rows at Gonards cemetary. Here's to Captain R.E. Tanner, Lieutenants G.H. Hewitt, C. Dunlop, Lieutenant Colonel G. de W. Verner, Privates O. F. A. Ebdon and G.T Fox, randomly chosen as English, Welsh, Scots and Irish men who fought and died on French soil during the great war. 
A pause in the Wednesday Doorway series because today we celebrate the end of World War I. There are a great many French soldiers who were laid to rest at Gonards cemetery. The wall honours those men and reminds us of the worst battles: Somme, Marne, Verdun... Three of my great-grandfathers died between 1915 and 1917 during that butchery, on both German and French sides.
What makes cemeteries nice around All Saints, is the bloom of chrysanthemums, which is the traditional flower at this time of the year. The undertakers have them all ready for sale at the entrance of the cemetery. 
