Le Quesnoy

Even a quick look around this town reveals the close connection it has to New Zealand. The main square is the Place de Cambridge and there is the Place des All Blacks, Rue Aotearoa and Rue Nouvelle-Zélande nearby.

There is always a warm welcome here for Kiwis from around the world and each Anzac Day brings back both old regulars and new faces. The NZ/Le Quesnoy Association and the town is very generous in hosting all New Zealanders to these commemorations each year.

Herb Farrant, President of the New Zealand Historic Military Society, has been leading tours to the Western Front for 10 years. He was generous enough to include us in his programme of talks and visits to cemeteries throughout Saturday and we learnt more about the history of the area and the town’s liberation by the Kiwis in November 1918 which, despite British orders to flatten whatever was in their path, was achieved without any loss of civilian lives.

Many of the New Zealand soldiers who died here were only a year or two older than our kids and Herb left us with a great sense of pride in those young men, who were so highly regarded for their resourcefulness, compassion and courage, and for the fact that they had come from the “uttermost ends of the earth” and had sacrificed themselves to save the lives of those whom they had never met.

While most of the kids were lucky enough to be taken ice-skating in the evening (and some went to Belgium for dinner!), we teachers were hosted at a dinner for about 150 people, NZ and French. What a great celebration and reunion of old friends this was, with plenty of laughter and singing, and the food was excellent.

The warmth of the French people in Le Quesnoy reflects what, for me, has been the best thing about our trip. From Nice to Avignon, St Rémy to La Rochelle, Le Quesnoy, and yes, even in Paris, everyone has been kind, helpful, patient, tolerant and friendly towards us, a little bemused by the scale of our journey, amused by the antics of the kids, amazed really that we should have attempted such a thing, but overall, more than anything else, honoured, that we have come from so far at such cost to see, experience and appreciate these people and their country.

La France, the pleasure was ours. À la prochaine!!