Armistice Day

The villagers of Montgaillard at the War memorial to remember the fallen of the First World War. Severin, Mle Maire, stands to the left, reading out the official message sent from Paris and then the names of all the men of Montgaillard who died in the First War,France has different commemorations for different conflicts and only the dead of WW1 are on the War Memorial (and so few French died in WW2). After each name is read out we say 'Mort pour la France' and at the end of the 2 minute silence at 11 a.m. the children place a bouquet on the steps of the memorial along with pots of chrysnathemums, the flower of mourning. Sue, Will and I wore our British Legion poppies and at the end we put them on the bouquet - a British marking of the solemn day.

Montgaillard is a very quiet place with very litte traffic, but almost inevitable asthe 2 minte silence started 3 cars drove behind us through the village.