We are packed and ready to go. I am glad that we are not flying out of Erie until about 5 p.m. That gives us several hours to make certain we have everything we need. I have been reading so many books in preparation for this trip as well as my writing. I am glad that Tim has been able to study the details of our travel. I think he knows where every Starbucks is in Paris.
I just finished reading the chapter on 1915 in Elizabeth Greenhalgh's The French Army and the First World War--there is a paragraph attributed to Abel Ferry, deputy for the Vosges and a sub-lieutenant in 166 RI.
In a letter dated 21 May 1915, Ferry wrote, "A sinister, almost vertical, slope descends into the valley of'death.' Not a single tree that a shell has not cut; as spring grows greener, the ground in Les Eparges is of volcanic sterility. The plain is green; The Meuse heights are green, but [here] the ground is black and turned over, craters everywhere, enormous holes big enough to bury a whole squad...the trenches are constructed of..." (pp.84-85)
I don't continue because some readers may balk, but the truth is horrifying. I feel this journey is going to get me closer to Archie's experience. I hope that I am ready.
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