[Magdalen] Belleau Woods.

[cantor03 at aol.com]

I see that it's a 100th anniversary year for the World War I Battle of 
Belleau Woods in France.  Festivities center on the American
Cemetery at the site.  USA military cemeteries, in my opinion, are well 
worth a visit as they are all beautifully kept, and the Belleau Wood
Cemetery is no exception.  It is really off the beaten path, however.
I blundered onto it when exploring the many medieval relics of
the region, in this case probably on my way to Soissons, a city
with a lot of such medieval sites.  
 
The Chapel at the cemetery was designed by none other than USA's
Ralph Adams Cram, who really launched the collegiate neogothic
mania that swept the USA about 1890 - l950, and his Chapel
for this Battle, located right on the front lines, looks, as I recall,
like an Episcopal church, though of course it is officially non-sectarian.
 
Saint Joan of Arc is said to have led her Dauphin and his troops right
through the Belleau Woods Battlefield on their way to his coronation
at Reims Cathedral.. (May 1428).
 
I'm really getting old, because I can recall being at the L'Hotel de Ville
at Reims to witness that city's ceremony on a snowy November
11, 1968, marking the 50th Anniversary of the Armistice.  
 
 
David S.