First World War

A Pause for Thought

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On the way to the Autoroute which will take him to towards Strasbourg, Donqui passes dozens of First World War cemeteries. It seems as if there is another one every couple of hundred  metres.

He decides to stop off and pay his respects at the Vimy battlefield where in 1917 the Canadian Division captured a prominent ridge now topped by a colossal monument. 

A section of the trenches have been preserved with concrete ‘sandbags’. DonQui paces out the distance between the original frontline Canadian and German trenches. They are only 50 metres apart! Between them are a number of craters formed by shells and the larger ones by mines set off in tunnels dug underneath the trenches.

DonQui takes the evocative guided tour of a section of the tunnels — now reinforced and better lit than they would have been in 1917.  Parts of the tunnels served as field headquarters as well being a relatively safe way of moving between positions. 

One mine tunnel still exists, dug deep to work its way under the German trenches. This one was never blown. The big crater below was caused by an exploded mine.

Vimy is an amazingly evocative and sobering battlefield site — preserved, staffed and maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada.  DonQui had only expected to make a brief stop but ended up staying several hours. It gave him lots to think about.

Road Trip!

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DonQui Oaty is excited to be off on his travels again. This time it is a road trip through France, Germany (a bit of Austria) and Italy. 

So passport in hand and car fully serviced with new front tyres, he sets off on the first stage. He is heading for Alsace but intends to break his trip at Arras. 

Actually his first break is at the channel tunnel where he encounters a massive traffic jam trying to get out of the terminal carpark and into the border control lanes. Designed when one could just wizz through, the traffic management is not set up to deal with detailed passport checks — yet another of the Brexit ‘benefits’ along with higher food prices and critical labour shortages. Even though he arrived more than 1 hour ahead of time, Donqui misses his booked train and has to catch the next one.

Arras is a very pleasant town with lots of good watering holes around the Place des Héros. DonQui is glad to have stopped here.

It looks a lot better now than it did in 1917 when it was the centre of a British offensive in the First World War. The above photo being the same square where DonQui stops for a drink more than a century later.

Arras is twinned with Ipswich, close to DonQui’s home paddock in Suffolk. The Place d’Ipswich comes complete with a familiar looking phone booth.

After another drink and a decent meal, DonQui will resume his trip in the morning.

Food and Farming

~ donquioaty ~ 3 Comments

So… DonQui is in a bit of an agricultural mood at the moment. Having whipped his allotment into shape he is in need of a few more things to plant. He is thinking of beans – they always seem to do well and the surplus can be easily frozen. A few more herbs might be in order too. He already has thyme, oregano, tarragon, parsley, coriander and chives but some basil would be nice and Duchess has her heart set on some mint. The latter is a problem since mint runs roots all over the place and could soon take over everything. Never mind, he will deal with that in due course. In the meantime he needs to decide where to go to pick up some more plants.

What’s this?

Darsham Nursuries

According to The Guardian newspaper the Darsham Nurseries,  just down the road, is on the list of the 100 best places to eat in England.

A nursery café one of the best places to eat in England? Normally all DonQui might expect in such a place is a stale piece of cake and some instant coffee – not for him!

Yet this information comes from a most trusted source so he decides to give it a try. After all he does need to buy some plants.

And what a delightful surprise it is!

cocktail

Duchess is delighted with her ‘English Garden’ cocktail. Such things are not to DonQui’s taste but he can appreciate the fresh minty aroma while he sips on a good glass of Beaujolais.

menu

The menu offers a tapas-style selection of modern European sharing plates in larger than expected portions.

chop

DonQui particularly enjoys the seasonal grilled local asparagus with romesco and almonds. Romesco is a Catalan pepper based sauce from Tarragona and although DonQui did not sample this when he was in Tarragona he finds it quite delicious. The locally sourced  Blythburgh pork chop with apricots was simply divine although DonQui struggles to see it as a ‘small dish.’

curds

Duchess’ favorite was the ‘garden greens’ (Swiss chard) with burnt lemon and goat’s cheese curd. It was slightly better presented that the picture above indicates but by the time DonQui got around to taking it Duchess had already tucked in!

One side dish DonQui had to order was radishes with butter and salt – a very simple French classic. As a very young colt DonQui remembers his grandfather raving about radis au beurre. He had fought at the Battle of the Somme in the First World War and radis au beurre was something he had acquired a taste for in the cafés behind the lines when he was away from the action. He even insisted that the French word for butter was aubeurre and no amount of DonQui’s primary school knowledge could convince him that the ‘au’ was not an integral part of the word. “I was in France and I know,” was his emphatic reply and that was that.

The meal was utterly delicious, finished off with a heavenly concoction of creamy cheese over fine phyllo pastry with honey and nuts. It was billed as a ‘cheese cake’ but the name did not do it justice. DonQui is not a great fan of traditional cheese cake and this was anything but.

mint

And yes DonQui did pick up some mint which is now awaiting re-planting. The nursery did not have any beans but in light of the most delicious lunch he really does not mind.