Our Vimy Experience

After leaving Belgium, we picked up our rental car (which we have for the next five weeks in France) and made our way to Arras in Northern France. While not on the traditional tourist trail, Arras was the base for our next adventure: volunteering at the Vimy centennial commemoration ceremonies. While our previous volunteer opportunities have been the typical events through school, sports and church, this was our first family volunteering experience contributing to an occasion on an (inter)national scale. This would also be the first time volunteering where our French language skills would be required.

For those of you not familiar with Vimy Ridge, it is a First World War battleground where Canadian soldiers collectively fought for the first time as Canadians rather than a subjects of the British Empire. The ridge was occupied by German soldiers and it was deemed an almost impossible fight.
We weren’t even sure if we would be able to volunteer until just a few weeks before the event. Security concerns made it challenging for Veterans Affairs to be able to confirm any details much in advance. After months of emails and phone calls, we finally had confirmation in late February. And while we knew we would be volunteering, we had no idea if we would be emptying garbage cans, cleaning portapotties or being Justin Trudeau’s personal chaperone!

We arrived in Arras and went to meet the volunteer coordinator at the Mercure Hotel, where (it seemed) the hotel was completely taken over by Canadians. He was excited to see us as we were the only family volunteering and he happily gave us our assignment working in the Education Tent with a group of Veterans Affairs employees sharing information about Vimy with event visitors.

We still had to find out how to make our way to Vimy, as the strict security measures in place prohibited anyone from driving to the ceremony. Fortunately, Veterans Affairs had set up an office on the edge of the Places des Héros with helpful maps on where to go. After talking with a few people, we decided to park our car in Givenchy-en-Gohelle and walk into the memorial. Even more fortunately, we were able to meet up for a quick visit with our friend Dan who was chaperoning a group of high school students from Ontario. We hadn’t seen Dan in nearly four years and it was incredible to think that we could meet up in France!

We then went to Givenchy-en-Gohelle to research parking spots. What an incredible sight to drive into a small village and see at least half of the village flying Canadian flags (where did they all come from?!?). In fact, we had never seen so many Canadian flags flying from homes all at once, even on Canada Day in any major Canadian city. It was very moving and set the tone for the following day.  We stopped to ask for assistance to find the designated parking and one of the residents promptly jumped in his car and told us to follow him.

We woke up bright and early Sunday, April 9 to cold temperatures and lingering fog making us all shiver thinking about what it would have been like for the soldiers that morning, a hundred years ago. We easily found a parking spot and made our way to the security point. We were able to flash our volunteer badges and walked the kilometre or so up to the memorial. We were among the first volunteers on site and had a few moments to enjoy the calm before the ceremony began.

Then it was off to the Education Tent to meet the people with whom we would be spending the next nine hours. The Veterans Affairs team was welcoming and had plenty of work to share. Something came over our daughter and she turned into a hostess extraordinaire, handing out pins, applying temporary tattoos (we probably applied over 1000 between the four of us) and collating printed handouts. She was a machine! Our children’s enthusiasm made many visitors smile. Once our children learned their roles and what to say, they were incredibly independent. And they did it all switching constantly from English to French and back again. They made us proud!

Fortunately, we were able to watch the ceremony, thanks to the large video screens by the main stage. This would likely be our first and last time at an event with the Canadian Prime Minister, French President, Canadian Governor General and the Princes Charles, William and Harry. The ceremony was very touching, artistic and beautiful with a mix of formal speeches, live acted excerpts of letters written by soldiers, modern dance, songs from famous French and Canadian (anglo and francophone artists) and short video clips. The whole program switched between English and French which made us feel very much at home. The one hiccup of the event was the lack of functioning toilets for the almost 30,000 people present. Midway through the day, the pumps gave out, rendering half of the toilets out of service. And they couldn’t be repaired or replaced because the perimeter was closed due to security!

After the ceremony finished, it was back to the tent for our last shift of temporary tattoos. Finally, we had to leave the grounds as the security guards were eager to have everyone leave the site. Amazingly, we bumped into Dan again leave the site with his students. We made our way back to Givenchy-en-Gohelle and went home. It was a long day, but an incredible experience for our whole family.

Next stop: Normandy!