Out and About in Arras

Thursday August 5th

Everyone decided to sleep in today . They had all put their clocks and watches another hour forward so getting up at 9am was really like getting at up at 8am in England. Fortunately the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. They decided to leave me parked at the camp and take Louise’s car into the centre of Arras. Pania got to go on the outing today.

It was fairly easy to find a park right in the centre of town, but only for two hours. They went to tourist Info place and got a walking tour of Arras. The man in the office spoke very good English and explained where to walk.alan took a picture of me with the Giants of Arras. There are two lovely plazas in the centre Of Arras. The first one Place Des Heros (Place of the Heros )was all dug up and having a complete makeover. Hamish kept commenting about how all the workers actually working, they were all doing something. This is not always so in England, you often see people watching others work. They were very skilfully relaying new cobble stones in the main courtyard. There was certainly no idleness and they were working as a team. It will be magnificent when it is completed later in the year.

The second plaza is the Grand Place. It is slightly bigger and had the whole centre full of activities for children for the holidays complete with sand and beach volleyball. The walk took us around the town and past the cathedral that was also having a makeover but was not open for viewing.

After a typically French lunch of a filled bagette, we booked in for a tour of the underground cellars and passages known as Les Boves. These are limestone quarries dug from the 10th century on. The tour tells you about the underground history of Arras. They were first used to quary limestone,and later became cellars and warehouses for the traders on the squares, and then shelters for the population of Arras during the 2nd world war. The tour guide spoke French first and then English.

They then searched for a supermarket, which they had seen on the way in but didn’t pass on the way out because of the one way system. They finally found one and stocked up on supplies and came back to the camp. After dinner it was back into the cards which they all enjoyed.