Our day began with an hour-long trip by car to Montdidier. We were welcomed at the Lycée Jean Racine at 8:30 am with coffee and petits pains au chocolat. There was a big American flag hanging outside over the entrance to the school and in the room where we had refreshments.
The fellowettes with Madame Soucaze in front of the American flag.
Here is our welcoming committee: (L to R) Mr. Larget (the Assistant Principal), Maud Hamard and Virginie Soucaze (English Teachers) and Virginie Dangreville (History Teacher)
We immediately set out on a field trip to the nearby town of Cantigny, accompanied by Madame Dangreville, Madame Hamard, and a teaching assistant form Minnesota named Laura.
In Cantigny, there is a sweet old man, Mr. Lefever, who has made it his life's work to preserve the memory of the great Battle of Cantigny which is also his home village. He was himself a prisoner of war in Germany in World War II. He is now 95 years old and still helping young people understand the incredible importance of World War I. The first battle of World War I in which American soldiers fought was the Battle of Cantigny, involving the Big Red One --- the US Army's 1st Infantry Division.
Here are some of the artifacts in Mr. Lefever's personal collection/museum: A warning from the German occupiers that harboring Allied soldiers or pilots was punishable by death. Lexi is standing next to soldiers' personal items from the battlefield.
Laura, whose research topic involves World War I, and Mr. Lefever.
Enjoy this brief clip of Mr. Lefever being questioned by Madame Robillard about his experience of returning to his village after being a war prisoner for five years in Germany --- and he has quite a colorful response!
The American memorial in the village of Cantigny.
After Cantigny, our next stop was the mayor's office in Montdidier. We were joined by Monsieur Du Castel, the Principal of the high school. The mayor is a woman and she explained in French to the fellowettes the differences between mayors in France an din the US. She also explained the story of rebuilding the twon hall in the 1930's after World War I and the beautiful Art Déco style in which it was designed. Notice the Marianne bust behind the fellowettes in the picture on the right --- this is a symbol of the French nation and its status as a republic. Busts such as this one can be found in every government office in France.
Our next stop in our tour of Montdidier, during which we were graciously led by Mr. Larger who is himself a former History Teacher, we visited the statue of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who was a native son of Montdidier and who is known for having introduced the potato as a staple to the French diet.
We stopped in at a local grocer and Charissa checked out the produce available there.
We also came across this sad reminder of World War II, a plaque marking the spot where a French resistant was mortally wounded by the Nazis on the eve of France's liberation from Nazi occupation.
Montdidier is built on a cliffside, so there is a lower part of the town and an upper part of the town. Here the fellowettes get a view over the lower part of the town and the field beyond where the view was quite impressive.
Right next to the Lycée Jean Racine is this cemetery from World War I for both German and French soldier. While the French buried their dead each with one white cross, the Germans buried theirs four to a plot. This marker above is for an unknown German soldier. Mr. Larger is pointing out that even before Hitler's rise, the Jewish soldiers were not allowed to be buried in the same plots as the other German soldiers. They have headstones with the star of David and their graves disrupt the perfect lines of the graves of the other German soldiers, as if they were an afterthought.
Here the fellowettes walk along the rows of the fallen French soldiers from World War I. Along a side wall were the graves of Muslim soldiers from the French colonial empire such as Algeria, Senegal, and Morocco. There was even a Vietnamese soldier's grave. The Muslim soldiers' graves pointed toward Mecca.
After our tour of Montdidier, we ate a very delicious lunch in the school cafeteria and then we attended a talk given by a French Feminist writer, Belinda Cannone.
Piper gave Léo and Gabriel some Norman North t-shirts which they wore with pride.
We attended Madame Hamard's English class.
Laura and Piper got to play soccer with some of the girls' team at Lycée Jean Racine. These girls were the Champions in their age group for all of France in 2011.
We took one huge group photo, knowing that all the French kids in this picture will be visiting Oklahoma in April this year!
À bientôt!
