Student Tour Blog

Written by William Stuart

Today, after breakfast, we packed up and left Chavasse Farm. Part of me wants to suggest it was a bittersweet moment – leaving this lovely, beautiful place and the wonderful couple that owns and runs it – but that would be disingenuous. Needing to step off and move along, we acted as a remarkably cohesive team, cleaning and tidying and packing and preparing the houses to vacate. The morning was a controlled flurry of cooperation in an effort to leave this country garden in a respectable state while making haste to Dieppe. While not strictly relevant to world war history, I thought this sequence quite demonstrated this group’s closeness, which a closeness I feel is unique and separates us from many travel groups, particularly with travellers of this age.

En route from Hardecourt-au-Bois to Dieppe, the vistas from the bus were stunning. The endless farms, these fields of heather and potato, slowly relented to the encroachment of proper forests and dramatic hills. Tall, proud conifers made themselves known as we transitioned from the Hauts de France, near Belgium, to the white cliffs of Normandie – Dieppe. It would be easy to remember that the land over which we travelled was contested and indeed fought over – that beings lost their lives over the roads which pressed us forward – but harder to parse that duality between current beauty and violent history. The beauty of these landscapes today belies and conceals the inhumanity and turmoil which transpired a mere century ago – a fraction of a blink in the eye of the universe. The On Route equivalent, at least in this part of France, is much nicer than in Ontario.

Arriving at Dieppe, we were met with a markedly vertical geography. Descending upon the shale beach, we learned the overview of the Dieppe Raid, Operation Jubilee, and were able to experience for ourselves the challenges faced by the allies involved in this raid – dramatically steep cliffs, with only one point of passage, and near panoramic views for German machine gun positions, to simplify.

Our next stop was the hotel, the lovely Mercure Présidence Dieppe. Here we laid our baggage, lunched and waited for our rooms. Twas not to be, however, as a clerical mishap lead to a situation of impromptu hotel change. Once again I noted the cohesion and flexibility of the group, as the need to pick up our baggage and carry it down the road was met not with a grumble nor a complaint, but an easy acceptance of the cards dealt. Expeditiously we found our way down the road, without missing a beat. Again, a team of this closeness, cohesion and amicability is notable in its uniqueness and in its profound positive effect on the trip at large.

Having settled into our new hotel, we departed for a stroll down the beach to learn about Padre Foot and his heroism in the Dieppe Raid and a conversation. After this last group activity, we separated and set out for an evening in Dieppe. All of the students ended up going to dinner together at a Savoie chalet themed restaurant – a cut close to home to me, as I lived in Savoie for a year many years ago. Here we had a lovely meal, many with and some without the fresh seafood from the sea we were looking out into. I shared fondue with Denver, and a bottle of Muscadelle. Dieppe is a lovely city, and what a pleasure to sojourn there for an evening. The following morning it would be an early reveille, breakfast and a swim in the channel.

-William Stuart (University of Waterloo)