Villers Bretonneux

On the 24th April Steffen and I drove through Germany, Belgium and France to reach Villers Bretonneux. I can only say that it was the most weirdest, unsettled feeling Ive had in a fair while. After four months of pure Germanisation I was surrounded by Australians and their accents again and in addition, the Australian flag was in every direction you looked. There was a game of rugby going on at the local oval and plastic kangaroo cut outs in peoples gardens.


We found the Victoria School after a long walk around with Steffen doing his best at French and me perfecting my 'Merci!'. In the courtyard was the 'Do not forget Australia' sign which almost brought tears to my eyes. It was surreal to see it after viewing the sign in newspapers, textbooks and on the Internet. We were asked if we were Australians and I quickly said yes before Steffen could answer. After a walk through the museum Steffen whispered that he really shouldn't say that he's German and realised why I claimed us both as Australians beforehand.

We then made our way out to the memorial site where a rehearsal for the dawn service was in place. It was pretty impressive the white building and the graves which belonged to more than just Australian soldiers. I couldn't wait for the Dawn Service. After this we drove to our hotel in Longueau and then onto Amiens for a sticky beak.

3am came upon us and we could hear doors opening and people already walking down the hallway making their way out. We rolled out of bed and I, at least, rugged up as if it were January again. The Australian Gov. website suggested to wear warm clothing as it gets very cold and in 2009 it was freezing. So I wore my snow boots and 2 jackets with my layers. Along with a Topdeck tour group we left the hotel, passed through numerous police and parked at the specifically designated spot. It was all planned to a T. We were in at least the first 200 to arrive so we got really good seats. Some Australian soldiers gave us a programme and a pin with an Australian and French flag which was pretty good. After ages of waiting the ceremony finally started. Steffen was amazed at how bright everything was becoming so quickly which made me think that at least he will be amused by the sunrise if he finds the ceremony boring ( I was proud though when later on in the day he said the service was really cool). I thought it was very well done and I'm really happy that my first Dawn Service was the one at Villers Bretonneux.