A G.R.B.L.R. Party in Arras

Andre’s parent’s good friends from home came to visit last week. They arrived in Arras Monday afternoon by train. We started off by touring around the town center, stopping at the Belffoi so the group could get a tour of the Boves and a trip to the top for the amazing view.

For dinner we headed to the grand place to try a new restaurant, the Assiette au Boeuf. Just as the name of the restaurant implies; our delicious meal consisted of a plate full of beef!

The next day we went to Vimy Ridge. I had a meeting with the moving company, so I was not able to attend the tour. It looks like they had a good time though!

After the party returned from Vimy we all piled back in the car and drove to Ypres. Ypres is a beautiful town in Belgium that sustained a lot of conflict during WWI. There is a large and impressive war memorial called the Menin Gate that holds a ceremony every night at 8 o’clock. The Last Post is played and is a tradition that has been held since it first started in 1927. Even during the Second World War the memorial ceremony was apparently moved to people’s basements.

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But we started our visit to Ypres with waffles! After some delicious waffles, we walked around the main square looking for a Belgian chocolatier. We also stopped in at the Flanders Museum inside the Ypres Belffoi. From there we walked to the Menin Gate that really is a beautiful and solem memorial.

We returned to chez Andre and Christi (sans Andre who was still in Normandy) for a delicious spagetti dinner prepared by Anne.

avec pain au l'ail du Bob

The next day was Wednesday, a market day! After a café and patisserie in the place des heroes, we perused the market vendors buying all sorts of meats and cheeses.

We also got a little shopping done along the pedestrian walkway heading back to our apartment.

In the afternoon we went to Beaumont-Hamel. We took a slight detour that ended up taking us through a farmer’s field.

The tour and entire site was very impressive.

That night Andre came home. He met us in Place des Heroes for a pint, concluding the G.R.B.L.R. Party’s stay in Arras, because the next day everyone would be heading to Paris!