I am briefly going to go through some points and then if others want to add to them with more detail that's great. I don't want to hog! :P

Friday.

Meet and Greet at St Pancras International by Joyce Quarrie the TM was pleasant and seamless. Joyce was with us every step of the way. I had never used Eurostar before so it was great to have that support. The journey was on time and very easy, although very busy!

At Lille we had a short walk with our luggage to the coach for transfer to the hotel. Be aware that you have to deal with your luggage on escalators and moving walkways although lifts are available.

We had a very short transfer to our hotel, a welcome drink of water or orange juice, and were swiftly in our rooms. A porter is available if required. My room was on the first floor overlooking the street, large, with separate toilet, bathroom with shower over bath, coffee making facilities, and free bottle of water in the mini fridge every day. Several English channels on the TV including BBC1 and BBC2. Everywhere very clean.

Joyce took us for a short walking tour around Lille. It was a Bank Holiday so not many places open including the Cathedral. We had some free time and Joyce gave us the option of eating later or snacking then. Mark and I went off together and snacked! 😃 Later back at the hotel there was a welcome drink. Beer, wine or soft drink. Most of the group went to one of the local brasseries with Joyce and I understand the meal was pleasant. I had another couple of beers and then made my way to bed.

Saturday.

Up early. We were starting out at 8.45am for a long day trip round to various sites. Really good buffet breakfast in the hotel. Plenty of choice. Including hot food ( sausage, eggs and bacon).

We started our tour at the small town of Poperinge and Talbot House which was very interesting with a small garden which was very peaceful with some lovely flowers. A cup of Yorkshire tea and Anzac biscuits was included. From there we went to the Ypres Salient and Tyne Cot Cemetary. Several visits to various sites during the day before a late afternoon arrival in Ypres. It was very busy, as the locals were getting ready for the local Cat Festival on the following day. As you can imagine Bosuncat was very excited to hear about this. :thumbup: We ate locally before attending a very moving Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. Although extremely busy it was everything I hoped it would be and very, very moving.

Sunday.

Another early start. 8.30am. First of all to Beaumont Hamel on the Somme. A wonderful walk amongst the various preserved trenches and then onto the battlefield on guided paths. We stopped off at Arras for lunch and then to the huge Thiepval Anglo-French Memorial which is awe inspiring. The final stop of the day was at Vimy Ridge and the huge and very beautiful Canadian memorial.

There was an included farewell meal at the hotel that night which to me was probably the only slightly disappointing part of the weekend. Buffet food. Chips were mostly cold and all it was, a choice of beef or fish and vegetables followed by apple pie. A free drink was included though.

Monday.

We went back to Ypres for a visit to the In Flanders Fields Museum which I really enjoyed, (if enjoyed is the right word to use). A wonderfully presented series of exhibitions. After that there was free time to eat, etc, before a transfer back to Lille for the Eurostar.

So to sum up.

Tour Manager, Joyce. Highly efficient lady with a vast knowledge of French history. I really liked Joyce. She was easy to get on with and very caring, also a lot of fun.

The Group. 21 of us. I think most of us got on very well from the start. Having everyone (nearly) sitting together on the Eurostar broke the ice right from the beginning and I really enjoyed the sing song on the way back! Great to be able to spend more time with Cindy, to meet up with Cathy again and put a face to Janib! 🙂 Thank you to Mark for all your help and friendship. :thumbup:

The Hotel.

Comfortable, friendly staff and a good breakfast. Pity about the farewell meal not being tremendous, but I think for a chain hotel it does what it does well and the beer was good. Good location for getting back into Lille if you wanted to.

The Tour as a whole.

I enjoyed it but it is a tremendous lot to do in 2 full days. There is a lot of walking and some of it is on cobblestones so PLEASE wear comfortable shoes. As I have a slight mobility issue I was concerned how I would manage but I was okay. Don't take much in the way of luggage because of managing on Eurostar.

I hadn't been away on just bed and breakfast before and food and drink prices are not cheap particulary in France. Also going round most of the sites there is not time or the opportunity to get coffees, so make sure to make use of your water from the hotel! Plenty of toilets everywhere.

Hope this has been useful. I am in the middle of sorting my photos so if anyone is interested I shall make a link available in the next couple of days.

Thanks for writing a review of your recent trip and have forwarded this on to the wider team - I'm now very interested to see what the others have to say too.

I know without a doubt our team would love to see your pictures (and I know they would be disappointed if I didn't ask if we could use some photos to create an album on our facebook page?).

Kindest regards,

Julia

Hi Bosuncat,

Thanks for writing a review of your recent trip and have forwarded this on to the wider team - I'm now very interested to see what the others have to say too.

I know without a doubt our team would love to see your pictures (and I know they would be disappointed if I didn't ask if we could use some photos to create an album on our facebook page?).

Kindest regards,

Julia

Of course Julia. I am still in the middle of sorting them, but will put an open link on to them as soon as I can.

I am sure that the others will comment further. :thumbup:

Well done for you for getting this comprehensive review up already..

I agree with what's been said, so will only add a few things.

I do agree that Joyce was a VERY good manager, and we were informed of her Mobile Number and room number which doesn't always happen, but it is reassuring.

First time on Eurostar for me and I thought it worked really well for a group, and much less hassle than a plane for that short distance.

I do agree lots and lots of cobbled streets and you have to get off and on the coach many times, coach did have a toilet on board. I liked not to keep stopping For coffee and cake stops at every opportunity, there were enough comfort stops along the way.

I did go for the meal Friday night, very accommodating restaurant very nice meal and good staff.

I to wasn't that impressed with the farewell meal, very Luke warm fish and chips and a glass of red wine that could strip paint!, but I still drank it,

if you have a interest in WW1 then this is a very good tour to go on, I found all the names I wanted to find at Menin Gate and Tyne Cot, but not at Thiepval the names were just to high up.

All in all well worth going on this tour

Cindy

I have tweaked my posting as it had not all posted again for some reason..there was about an inch at the bottom missing? Strange...

Cindy

Did you have dedicated guides at the battlefields sites, or was it DIY ?

Thanks,

RM

Many thanks Bosuncat for such a comprehensive review. I am thinking about taking this trip next year, I have a particular interest in Vimy Ridge.

Did you have dedicated guides at the battlefields sites, or was it DIY ?

Thanks,

RM

Hi RosieMo.

It's a very worthwhile trip. English is widely spoken. It was just a shock to me on how expensive food and drink was. 🙂 I am not used to French prices.

Joyce was with us all the time and she knew the area well so that was a big help. We had a young Canadian volunteer guide with us at Beaumont Hamel for the Somme, and he took us into some of the preserved trenches, and explained the battlefield. We also had a short escorted tour at Vimy Ridge. There was a big ceremony going on at the monument there so we couldn't get tremendously close but some of us took the opportunity to be taken up in a golf buggy again by a young Canadian volunteer. The monument is totally awesome there.

I think Bosuncat covered most of the tour. I put my photo of Nellie Spindler who is the Staff Nurse buried at Lijssenhoek onto the RCN Facebook page on May 12th as it was International Nurses Day. So far it has had 81 Likes and several comments. As to Rosie Mo's comment we were shown particular graves ie Nellie Spindler and Captain Noel Chavasse who won 2 Victoria Crosses- he is at Brandhoek. There were no guides at the cemetaries, Joyce gave us all the information we needed. Like Cindy, most of us were looking for certain people. Val's grandfather was killed at Aubers Ridge on 9th May 1915, although we did not go there, at least she was in the same country on his 100 anniversary.

I was the only one who upgraded to Premier Class on Eurostar and wished I had not bothered. Breakfast on way out and a snack lunch on return was the only extra. The carraige was old and carpets needed cleaning. More leg room I guess. Also very surprised that St Pancras had made no effort to celebrate VE Day where as in France it was a Bank Holiday.

The meal on Friday night was great. The poor waiter thought there was only 3 of us, told him dix sept (17), thought he was going to have a heart attack. They put a few tables together and it was very good.

Hotel room was good, on the front with very good soundproofing, only heard the Police sirens. Walk in shower did get very slippery once I worked out how to use it :P

The Dutch Male Voice Choir on Saturday night at Ypres were awe inspiring. Have not cried in such a public place before :blush:

Arras was a welcome stop for lunch on Sunday. Know it well as that is where my Great Uncle Bernard lies in Faubourg D'Amiens. The picture that Cindy took with my plate of Merguez sausages and chips is now my profile picture on Facebook :P

Altogether it was a great trip, exhausting but memorable. Great to meet Cindy, Mark, Cathy, Jan and Bosuncat at long last.

Jan

RM

Jan

Thank you for a great review. I can't wait for September when I do this trip.

Jaya

Although we were only away 4 days our friendly group of 21 got to know each other very quickly. A joy of JY holidays is meeting new people, hearing where they are from etc but no one was more surprised than me when I introduced myself to the person sitting next to me at dinner on the first night, to find he lives in the same small town that I have worked and lived in for years! A small world they say!

A word of advice, there are a lot of photo opportunities, so make sure your camera is fully charged and you have enough spare memory. I think a few cameras didn't make it all through the day, mine included. Also at each site we visited I got into the habit of taking a photo of the visitor board so that when reviewing my photos I knew exactly where they were taken.

In conclusion, a very informative and enjoyable trip, and nice to meet up again with Elaine, and meet Cindy, Mark, and Jan.

I agree with all that has been said about this trip, there have been some very comprehensive reviews. The success of this trip was in no small part down to our TM Joyce. Everything was very well organised from the moment we met at St Pancras right through until we returned. Joyce gave us just the right amount of background information about the various sites we visited and was always on hand if we had further questions. We seemed to pack so much into just 4 days and I now know so much more about this period in our history.

Although we were only away 4 days our friendly group of 21 got to know each other very quickly. A joy of JY holidays is meeting new people, hearing where they are from etc but no one was more surprised than me when I introduced myself to the person sitting next to me at dinner on the first night, to find he lives in the same small town that I have worked and lived in for years! A small world they say!

A word of advice, there are a lot of photo opportunities, so make sure your camera is fully charged and you have enough spare memory. I think a few cameras didn't make it all through the day, mine included. Also at each site we visited I got into the habit of taking a photo of the visitor board so that when reviewing my photos I knew exactly where they were taken.

In conclusion, a very informative and enjoyable trip, and nice to meet up again with Elaine, and meet Cindy, Mark, and Jan.

I SO agree Cathy! Joyce was wonderful!

Thanks on the tip of taking a pic of the noticeboard. I should have done it!

It was lovely to meet up with you again. :thumbup: