Le Vieil Armand

The Berne Scout troop headed to Hartmannswiller, France to camp with some french scout troops and BSA troops from Zürich and Basel.  We assisted with a service project at Le Vieil Armand, a WWI war site in the Alsace region.  The memorial organization is preparing for the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI by restoring many of the trenches and war buildings.

 We actually set up camp with no rain :)

Flag ceremony the first morning.  Ryan was asked to represent the BSA troops in raising the American flag.

Our troop at opening ceremony.

The entire camp: 70 french scouts, 30 BSA (but not necessarily American).

The camp is now open!

We boarded the buses to go to the work site and all received French military rations (in the box).  This was a highlight for most of the kids.  The box included food for an entire day.  We used it for lunch both days and breakfast.

At the memorial site on our way into the trenches on the French side.

The trenches.

Behind our troop are the two kitchens that we helped remove loads and loads of dirt, including the wall behind the boys.

We ate lunch before starting our work.  The boys are cooking their rations sitting on the pile of dirt that they will soon be hard at work to remove.

French and BSA scouts quickly make a bucket line to dump the dirt buckets down the mountain and then return the empty buckets to the dig site.

Mixed lines gave all the scouts a chance to chat (in English and French) and get to know each other.  Our BSA scouts were particularly enamored with the french female scouts :)

Of course, it's raining now!  The trenches behind me but they are difficult to see with all the green.

Nate and I went hiking further down the trail and found more barracks.

This is the kitchen room that the scouts cleared out.  It is from WWI and has little flower stencils painted around the top edges.

Heading back to the buses after a long day of work in the rain and trenches (but we were well fed).

The large cross on the top of the hill at the memorial.

All the scouts.

Breakfast the next morning in the rain after a drenching night of torrential downpours.

Packing up camp in the rain (this is what our boys do best).

A quick hike in the German side of the trenches.

But when it rains, we are always finding rainbows!  We actually walked right through the pot of gold at the rainbow's end--we just didn't realize it until we saw the entire bow.

The boys marching back to camp in military formation--in the rain, of course!!!

Happy Trails!!