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• day 06
• Saturday, 1 September 2018
• Gauchin-Légal to Arras
• 119 km to yesterday
•   22 km today
• 141 km on Via Francigena to date

Awake about sun-rise, break camp and continue on the D341.

I feel quite conflicted today as I pass signposts pointing to the Mémorial national du Canada à Vimy.  This was a major battle for the Canadian forces in April 1917 (a few months later the Canadians took over from New Zealand and others to complete the Battle for Passchendaele near Ypres, Belgium).  It is less than 10 km and would delay arrival at Arras by a day.  

I carry on to arrive in central Arras about noon.  And find a festival underway.  There are two town squares and I find a hotel room for one night in the larger Grand'Place.  I have a walk around the city and find the Cathedral is closed.  And I notice it is a relatively new building while the surrounding four storied buildings (shops on the ground floor and residences above) have an appearance and feel suggesting pre 1900.  While the look is similar, the design details from top to bottom make each building unique.  

The relatively smaller Place de Héros has an almost brand new Hôtel de Ville occupying the full width at the western end.  It looks magnificent and has a tower for both a town clock and bells.  In the chat with others I learn the original cathedral and town hall were both destroyed during the WWI hostilities.  This evening there is to be light (but no sound) show projecting from the eastern end of Place de Héros onto the Town Hall. I am there at the start but, with no where to sit and all walls taken I don't stay long as tiredness quickly sets in.  The little I saw tells me this is remembrancing of the events of exactly 100 years before in 1918.  

And so to bed.