Les hommes tres courageux...

Well, sorry I have not written for a while but strangely I have not seen that much French around – maybe more French articles and things come out in the summer over here? I have no idea but as we make our way into autumn I am aware that I have not been posting much and that not much has been attracting my attention. I carry a camera with me to capture any interesting images but alas, the camera case has remained firmly shut!

I did come across this article however by Matt Johnson, called Legacy of the Kiwi tunnellers and it’s a heart breaker. Matt talks about the kiwi contingent who worked underground in Arras, France in preparation for the big push in WW1. What a horrific life – working around the clock they tunneled almost 90 metres of limestone a day, linking a series of medieval quarries which would eventually conceal 24,000 troops.  With some pride Matt comments that their commanding officer struggled to impose a military sense of discipline on this troops and ended up just letting them do their thing – many of the men working underground were from mining communities in NZ, such as the West Coast, and knew more than their commanding officers about the best way to approach the work. Different arms of the tunnels have names or NZ locations carved into the sandstone.

It must have been a hell of an OE notes Matt, but probably the phrase used by the guides is just as telling – “les hommes tres courageux”

Another food related post

On a similar theme as the previous post about locating restaurants, just noticed a new website where you can search menus - quite a clever concept - of course it means restaurants have to list with the site but check out http://www.menus.co.nz/ to find something Italian, Turkish or even FRENCH near your home town. Plus a great review in this weekends edition of the weekend newspaper in their Canvas supplement about Pastis Restaurant up in Auckland - bon appetite... yum