Looking for houses and history.

This morning in Calais

Looking for houses and history.
It was a quick trip to Calais and, as we have stayed at this hotel before, it took us only a little time to be settled in. We decided to search for the Walkers house first as we thought that the rain may get worse. With the aid of a map from the 1846 census and the free map from the hotel we set out and were rewarded with some success though not total. We found Rue de Vendee which is quite close to one of the main canals but couldn’t locate the original house at it was a large space (area 53 which was not number 53) and it appears to have been built over. The Rue is quite narrow and it was difficult to get long shots and we were more successful from the other side of the block – as well the rain continued to fall from above. It is always quite an emotional experience to be so close to where family lived such a long time ago. We eventually returned to our hotel in a very wet and soggy state.

The Walkers lived in the middle of this block, not right on the edge of the block but probably back behind where the darker coloured roof is.

This is the canal that can be seen in the 1846 map. The little kink is visible in the middle of the photograph on the left as well as on the map. It helps locate 53.

Saturday saw us heading for the Lace Museum. It is quite an excellent place to visit and reflects the history and future of lace and design very well. The lighting was good to look at the exhibits but not super good for photography and we only used flash for the machinery rather than the actual lace and fashion items. Still I took lots of shots and hopefully they will serve some use for the people waiting on them. There were virtually no brochures available and the books were all fairly heavy and not exciting in presentation at all. So that was bad luck for Carolyn, though I do have quite a few pics which may be some inspiration. There was nothing about our Australian Lacemakers at all and the few history books they had were in French. So all that has been left behind. I found a sample of manufactured lace from 1836 and managed to get a reasonable shot of it and we saw a Leavers machine in operation. I loved watching the lace machine working. Sadly little remains from the early 1840s and much of the equipment was destroyed/removed/lost during World War 2.

A little lace makes any safety vest more apealing!

This chair seat was inspired by lace.

The 1839 sample - not very good really but the best I could do. Can't go back and try again sadly.
Having already purchased our foot passenger tickets to get back to England we decided that we would check out the location of the terminal as we have to walk there tomorrow morning. It was a pleasant walk through the rain and the industrial area surrounding the actual port!!!! We won’t get lost tomorrow.

Today is Sunday and our last full day in France. This morning we went for a walk and went out onto the wharf from which William, Therese and the children sailed for England, where they married prior to sailing for Australia in 1848. It was foggy, wet and cold. This afternoon is slump time. We have watched the Remembrance Day Parade from London. It was a very sombre and short affair compared to the noise, music, flags, banners etc of our Anzac Day marches.

The major thought for the afternoon is should I have one more moules and frites meal before we head for Dover tomorrow? We shall be home in a little over a week.