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A humbling site (48)

• Ben Dirs
• 6 Sep 07, 01:01 PM

Amiens - As I scanned row upon row of crosses at one of the many that dot north east France like ice-white scars, it was sobering, and a little humbling, to think that my great granddad fought on these very fields.

It certainly managed to put my little sulk over our dwindling stocks of Foamburst and Shreddies into perspective.

Click here to watch Tom and Ben's first video diary

My cousin has in her possession my great granddad鈥檚 mother-of-pearl bible, dented, family legend has it, by a German bullet. A cracking story, although given my record with mobile phones, he probably just sat on it after a few .

What the old war hero, who would have associated France with little more than blood and death, would have made of the beady-eyed couples in their motor homes that wind their way past these long-silent battle grounds is anyone鈥檚 guess, but I鈥檓 starting to think they鈥檙e all a little bit odd.

Consider the envious, sideways glances as our Fiat Behemoth rolls into another campsite; the chink-chink of cutlery as another meal is taken in near silence in the rear of a dimly-lit vehicle; the mulletted waxing lyrical, and loud, about the capacity of his chemical toilet at 7am this morning.

That said, when I peered into the gloom last night and noticed that our van had been out-nuttered by a couple from Scarborough, I felt a sudden urge to spring from my bunk and run a key down the side of it. It was only the thought that it probably had a force-field fitted as standard that kept me tucked up in bed.

I get the feeling it is, in the words of Cypress Hill, time to 鈥榗ock the hammer鈥�, put our technical frustrations behind us and steam into Nantes, where Wales begin their World Cup campaign against Canada on Sunday.

More gremlins, the specifics of which I won鈥檛 bore you with, mean I write this from a campsite near when we should be well past Paris by now.

For Tommy, who is lumbered with all the driving on this trip, that鈥檚 got to be a bit of a choker. Yesterday, I even felt a little tug of guilt and gladly posed for photos, blue Marigolds pulled up to my elbows, when he suggested I change the dunny.

I also felt a bit guilty last night when I realised the rustling of pen on pad coming from my bunk could easily have been mistaken for鈥h, well, I鈥檝e said too much.

Here鈥檚 to great granddad Dirs, to Wales, to the calm before the storm and to a successful Rugby World Cup. By the way, does anyone know of a decent barbers in Nantes? My hair goes from to in about two weeks and it鈥檚 just about to pass the stage.

ps. Why does the milk smell funny over here and what's the French for ""?

Ben Dirs is a 主播大秀 Sport journalist travelling around France in a camper van with Tom Fordyce.

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