Last night we visited Menin Gate in Ypres. We were there for the short but moving ceremony where the Last Post is played and the Ode is said in memory of the 64,000 names on the walls of the gate. These are the names of soldiers with no known grave in Belgium. We found the final Shanahan name on Menin Gate, that of Michael Shanahan, cousin of the great uncles who are buried in France. He is buried somewhere in Flanders in an unknown grave. We have both decide...

Yesterday we left Amiens and drove north to Fromelle. We visited the new war grave there was only opened a couple of years ago. The bodies of the soldier had been buried in a mass grave in the woods near the new cemetery and were found by a history teacher who had been searching for these soldiers for years. Some have been identified by DNA and now they are in a Commonwealth war grave just near the town's church. It is another beautiful setting and a very moving ...

Today we attended the dawn service at Villers Brettonneux. We were up at 2.30 am to get there on time but it was worth it. It was extremely cold but not wet which was wonderful. There were about 3,700 people at the service and it was very moving. Stories of young men killed in action in huge numbers were told and were made all the more real given the location. Later in the day we visited the cathedral in Amiens again to do an audio tour and enjoy it's immense s...

The last couple of days have been spent around Villers Brettoneux and the battle fields if the Somme. We have visited the grave of Matthew's great uncle, William Shanahan, who was wounded in the battle on 25 April 1918 at Villers Brettoneux. He died 2 days later in a field hospital on the western side of Amiens. The cemetery is small but has around 350 graves, mostly of known soldiers, all young men from Commonwealth counties all around the world. Later in th...

Our first full day in France. We picked up the hire car from the airport and, with only minor confusion, headed away from Paris to the city of Amiens. We visited the cathedral (the tallest cathedral in France and could hold two Notre Dames inside it) before heading out to the Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux. We found the name of the great uncle of a friend on the wall at the Villers Bretonneaux. There are nearly 11,000 names of soldiers who died in Fra...