A tribute to France and the French people

[alaric99x]

I returned today from another road trip to France. I've taken at least 25 such trips to France since 2002. During those trips I've seen many monuments to the soldiers who fought on French soil. France maintains numerous cemetaries and monuments to honor these soldiers. On this trip I drove through Chateau-Thierry and Dormans on the road to Reims. In Dormans there is a magnificent church commemorating the second battle of the Marne, honoring French and British soldiers, and a few kilometers beyond Dormans is a cemetary honoring Italian soldiers. I didn't even know Italian soldiers fought in those battles. There are cemetaries and monuments all across France, all the ones I've seen were beautifully maintained.

A little over two months ago I visited Verdun and toured Fort Douaumont and the Ossuary, a large monument and cemetary. The cemetary there also includes German soldiers. If you're ever in the area, Ft. Douaumont is definitely worth a visit. I didn't have time to visit Ft. Vaux, but Douaumont is a much larger fort and it costs very little to enter it and tour the inside on your own. If you walk through the woods outside the fort you can still see parts of the trenches and those metal stakes that supported barbed wire sticking out of the ground.

So, my respect and gratitude to France for maintaining all of these monuments and resting places of soldiers of all the nations who fought on French soil, including some monuments to former enemies of France.

In addition, France is a beautiful country to visit and the French people are extremely friendly and pleasant. I'm from the US, and relations between our countries haven't always been as warm as they should be over the past years. I've never made any secret about where I'm from while I was in France, and we from the US stand out anyway, but no one I've encountered in France has ever made any negative comments toward me or shown any lack of courtesy.