A quick stop
On our way home to Brussels, Mike went out of the way to take us through the village of Passchendael.
This is the Canadian memorial; we didn't have time to find the New Zealand one or the cemetery.
In terms of people killed, the battle here a hundred years ago was the worst disaster in our history.
It is now an ordinary Belgian village on a wide plain.
Here is the house our friends had on the outskirts of Brussels, with their two much-loved little terriers.
Next morning Mike took us in to the centre of Brussels on the way to the station to catch the train to Paris.
Here we are in La Grande Place, where in Spring they have the carpet of flowers.
At the station we waited a few minutes for the Thalys TGV train to arrive from Cologne; Brussels was its only stop on the way to Paris.
We headed for Lille in France and just beyond there swung more towards the south to join the Eurostar line from London.
After an hour and twenty minutes we pulled in to the Gare du Nord in Paris.
We had not so far booked accommodation, but we had done our research, so we phoned the best-looking YHA hostel and they had room, so we piled on to the Metro and soon arrived at the Mairie de Clichy station and the found the hostel nearby.
Over the next few days while we stayed in Paris, this hostel was very convenient. It was five minutes' walk from the metro, had good dining facilities, and we had a spacious room on the eighth floor.
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