La Manche - the Somme Estuary and a Chinese Cemetery

Travelling further south from Calais we spent a night at Le Crotoy on the Somme estuary. Here there is a vast expanse of sand as the Somme makes its way into the sea. This part of the coast was loved by the impressionists and it does have an almost pearlescent light.




We made  brief visit to Crecy where a watchtower has been built looking over the battlefield.


In Noyelles-sur-Mer we stumbled upon a Chinese cemetery. Around 140,000 Chinese were employed on the Western Front in the first world war, not in active service but as labourers. They would work for very little money and were seen as 'coolies'. After the war most of the Chinese, identified only by a number, were sent home to China. Around 6,000 went to Paris to form the nucleus of the Chinese community there. Around 2,000 died during or just after the war.
Noyelles-sur-Mer was their largest camp in this part of France and most of the 841 buried in the cemetery here died from Spanish flu in the camp hospital. The graveyard was designed by Lutyens.



Finally a picture of our elderly dog Hettie on the beach at Le Crotoy








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