{"id":30489,"date":"2022-09-30T03:57:33","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T17:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=30489"},"modified":"2023-01-21T11:18:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T00:18:35","slug":"watten-france-%f0%9f%87%ab%f0%9f%87%b7-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=30489","title":{"rendered":"Watten, France \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 27-28th September 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: 60 kms from Bailleul to Watten   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited:  Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery and Watten   <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: Watten Aire, free, N50.83130, E02.20840<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget: 126 days @ \u20ac98 per day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It rained heavily on and off all night in Bailleul. Not the perfect night\u2019s sleep as the noise on the roof of the Hymer roused us more than once, so we have a bit of a lay in this morning. After coffee and some fruit Pam goes on her walk whilst I plan our route today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly the skies clears and we get some sun as we say goodbye to Bailleul via the Lidl supermarket for a few bits to hold us over till we are back in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lijssenthoek is across the border near Poperinghe in Belgium. It\u2019s a cross country run on D roads so we take our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So why are we visiting Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery<\/a>, well firstly it\u2019s not on our way. Whilst travelling to Tasmania earlier in the year, we stopped overnight in a free campsite in Longwood, Victoria. Longwood is little more than a village these days but as we always do, we go for an afternoon walk taking a look around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We find a memorial to Major F.H. Tubb VC<\/a> pictured below. After a delicious schnitty with a wicked pepper sauce at the Longwood Pub that night, I do a bit of Googling. I found Tubb\u2019s story and citation of valour and dedication quite remarkable and his death perhaps a little bad luck. Noting that Lijssenthoek isn\u2019t that far from Bailleul, I made a note in my diary should we return this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the recent centenary of The Great War, Lijssenthoek has had a visitors centre built next door which makes a visit interactive for want of a better term. We search for Tubb\u2019s records and burial details, pictured below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 10,784 burials Lissenbrock is the 2nd largest CWGC in Belgium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So our visit complete we make a note in the the visitor\u2019s book and return to the Hymer and make our way back into France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The old Belgium French border post.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cassel and nearly 3 klms of cobbeld road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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No shortage of potatoes for frites in France. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Soon enough we cross the Canal L\u2019Aa and find ourselves a spot at the aire. Watten has been our usual stop before the chunnel crossing for several years now, it has a comfortable relaxed feel. Most of the campers here are English so there\u2019s always someone to chat with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are here for two minutes when there\u2019s a knock on the door and we find Glen and Pauline who we met a few days ago are already here, so perhaps a drink and chat later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pam\u2019s keen for a leg stretch and I\u2019m keen for a drink so we walk back over the canal and into the village, do a lap to see what\u2019s open and what\u2019s not. We get a loaf of bread from the boulangerie and find a cafe for a tipple on our way back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More Kwak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back at the aire we meet up with our neighbours after dinner for some more chitchat before calling it a night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next morning the aire slowly empties as motorhomes head off for wherever, mostly the chunnel it seems. We plan a relaxing day of not doing much other than exploring Watten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looks like Michel was a Firefighter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nice photo of the \u00c9glise Saint-Gilles at the top of a laneway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Having walked the village once again we wander up to the \u00c9glise. We can hear singing and see a funeral is taking place (the hearse is a dead giveaway) so we cannot have a look inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a 20 minute walk up the hill to a stone windmill, which is Watten\u2019s village symbol. It has quite a history the site being a small moated fortress at one time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another 200m, on the crest of the hill, stands the ruins of a stone abbey, which is gated, we are disappointed to find you can only visit as part of a group. As we are a group of two, I don\u2019t see it happening this trip. The abbey tower pictured below was once part of a religious community which amazingly dates back to the 3rd century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We make our way back to the Hymer and another day rolls past our last full day in France. We have a train from Calais in the morning at 0950. Then driving on the left, narrow roads, roundabouts and greater London traffic. We\u2019ve managed 11 countries in the last 18 weeks, England, Holland, Denmark, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Luxembourg and finally France. So it\u2019s been an adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have family, friends, cleaning the Hymer and preparing it for storage over the next five days. So this will be our last blog until we are safely at home unless something worth noting happens. Thanks for following our adventures, once where home I\u2019ll wrap up the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 27-28th September 2022 Travelled: 60 kms from Bailleul to Watten    Visited:  Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery and Watten    Stayed: Watten Aire, free, N50.83130, E02.20840\u00a0\u00a0 Budget: 126 days @ \u20ac98 per day It rained heavily on and off all night in Bailleul. Not the perfect night\u2019s sleep as the noise on the roof of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":30522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[72],"class_list":{"0":"post-30489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-french-villages","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30489"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30707,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30489\/revisions\/30707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}