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After a day's worth of traveling, "planes, trains and automobiles" style, we were now staying at a hotel in Frènois, on the outskirts of Sedan, France.

The main purpose of the surprise trip, which everyone had kept secret, was to visit my grandfather's gravesite in the small village of Fleigneux some 5-6 km from Sedan.

We arrived in Fleigneux by bus and headed towards the cemetery, just a couple of minutes' walk from the bus stop. At first, it appeared that the gates were chained shut, surely the whole trip would not be ruined by being locked out. However, the chain was simply wrapped around the gate and was easily removed.

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The communal grave of the four airmen is situated at the far side of the cemetery and was easily seen from the entrance so we made our way through the lines of elaborate monuments to the site.

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A somewhat emotional and privileged moment, especially so because only a few members of the family have ever visited this place.

Sergeant A. C. Beddoe, Sergeant S. J. Knight, Flying Officer V. R. Matthews, and my grandfather Sergeant R. A. Nason made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and will surely be remembered.

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It seemed a very brief moment to spend with someone who I could never have known and even my father was still just a baby at the time.

We paid our respects and left the cemetery to the tranquility that it must know almost every day, the village is fairly remote and extremely quiet.

The only people we saw were driving through in cars, we walked around for a short while before stopping at a small fountain with a couple of seating benches across the street from the town hall building. We sat and ate our sandwiches purchased earlier in the day at Sedan. We were soon joined by a friendly dog who was quite interested in our food and obviously I shared a piece of my ham and cheese sandwich with him. Presently, a 4x4 vehicle came down the street and stopped close by, the window rolled down and the lady shouted something toward us. We did not understand the comment but the dog did, he trotted off to the car and jumped inside when the door opened. I had previously noticed the tracking collar, no doubt they must have to drive around regularly to find the dog after he strays away. Our only friend had been dognapped.

It was interesting to see that, even in such a remote and small village, there was an electric vehicle charging station. There is no shop, café or petrol station though!

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We walked around looking at the houses and gardens while there was still some spare time before the return bus was due, it is the only one for the day so we had to catch it.

We returned to the bus stop a few minutes before the due time and having seen just two people on our journey, waited patiently. The bus arrived in the village and apparently stopped on the opposite side of the church so was hidden from view, we were unsure if it had taken a different road out because it was now five minutes past the departure time. Suddenly, a few cars left the village almost in convoy but from different streets, the most activity that we had seen since our arrival, we assume that it was because the main road out is very narrow and the bus would have made it difficult for cars to pass.

A minute or so after, the bus could be heard climbing the hill behind the church as it rounded the corner to the stop. The same lady was driving and she remembered us, we then had an animated conversation with her and the other passenger already on board, about our visit. We showed some photos of the gravesite and tried to say "tombe de mon grand-père" in my best French, they seemed to understand. 

The journey back to Sedan was very much like the ride out, though we managed to see more of the scenery being less preoccupied with when our stop was due.

Back at the hotel, we finished the food and then went into Sedan yet again to see some more of the town and to take a walk around the lake.

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To be further continued, see the normal blog here.

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