NORTHERN FRANCE TRIP REFLECTION

Four Days in Northern France

After a sleepless twenty-six hours of travel and 2% battery displayed on all of our devices, we arrived at the Paris airport. Picking up all our luggage, we grabbed sandwiches and salads to compromise for the vegan pasta on the plane. We then immediately headed to our first destination, Vimy Ridge, where we explored Ally trenches, tunnels, and German trenches. Touring Vimy Ridge was enlightening for me because I no longer understood the Vimy Ridge battle as a textbook page I needed to memorise for a test, but an event that shaped the past and present. Going down to the rat-infested and mildewed tunnels, I began to make sense of the unbearable living conditions soldiers endured in war. In visiting the trenches, I realised the enemy forces had little protection against one another, and their trenches were unexpectedly nearby each other. We spent the first night in Arras, a small town in Northern France, and our breakfast was filled with delectable baguettes, fancy cheese, chocolate croissants, and coffee.

Continuing our dive into World War One history, we visited a cemetery with gravestones that indicated the home country of hundreds of allied soldiers. My friends and I were surprised to note that many of the gravestones belonged to soldiers from New Zealand and Australia, so our experience at this cemetery was valuable in allowing us to recognize that soldiers who fought alongside the Allies did not come only from Great Britain, France, America, and Canada. Soldiers from colonies of the Great Powers sacrificed their lives, too. The next day we visited another cemetery that was dedicated specifically to Canadian soldiers who fought and perished at Juno beach in World War Two. We found that many of the gravestones belonged to men from the Regina Rifle Regiment, but what was perhaps most striking for many of us was observing that many of the men in the cemeteries died at the age of 16. As we travelled to Juno beach, we had the opportunity to explore the German bunkers underneath the sand where the Germans strategically planned for ally arrival along the shoreline. Since we visited ally tunnels from the Great War the day before we visited Juno beach, it was interesting to note the structural advancements made between the wars to improve living conditions for soldiers. Enriching our knowledge of World War Two, we also visited a D-day museum in Caen, Normandy. The museum covered events from the Path to Global War up until the dropping of the atomic bomb at Pearl Harbour. I was fascinated by the extensive collection of propaganda in the form of posters, cartoons, and everyday household items that the museum had on display.

On the final day spent in Northern France, our learning took an abrupt turn as we began to explore history from the Romanesque and Gothic Ages when we visited Mont St. Michel. The abbey was enclosed by a huge brick wall surrounded by ocean at high-tide. Many of us agreed that Mont St. Michel appeared to be a scene from a Harry Potter movie; the monastery resembled Hogwarts, and the town that encircled it resembled Diagon alley. Through our tour at Mont St. Michel, we developed an understanding of the life of monks as well as an introduction to the characteristics that distinguish Romanesque and Gothic architecture