Memorial Canadien

We have ticked off another ‘can’t do with a dog’ thing on our list of places to visit. We moved on today to Arras, where coincidentally my mum’s grandad is buried, and recently discovered the first husband of the lady who married my dad’s uncle is also buried, so that we could visit the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge.

Jowett Coulton born 13 Oct 1898 or 1895 depending on what you look at was born in Keighley but emigrated to Mimico, Canada. He lost his life (25 September 1916) fighting with the Canadian’s and has no known grave and therefore is named on the memorial.

The plan was to then go onto to revisit Grandad Parkin’s grave and see the other one for the first time but it was so wet, we had a brief wander around Arras and headed back to the caravan.

You can see from the extras just how grim the weather is, yet despite thunderstorms overnight in Orlean we had a drive up and round Paris in quite pleasant weather. It started as we set off to go to Vimy Ridge and hasn’t stopped since!

Can’t let the day pass without mention of dear old Reggie who we lost a year ago today, in a violent thunderstorm- and I think it has rained everyday since!