nor yet the railway station in London [currently displaying a load of prehistoric monsters to advertise the next Jurassic film, out on Friday]
When we went to the Waterloo Visitor Centre in 2007, I was incredibly disappointed. For one thing, Bob has raved since his childhood about 'the chip vans in the car park at Waterloo' - where he allegedly ate the best frites et mayonnaise ever! There were no chip vans on the day I arrived on the pillion of the Honda.
The second thing -there was nothing in the Gift Shop [apart from one measly postcard] which celebrated Wellington's Victory. It was all about Napoleon. The Visitors' Book was full of comments from many disgruntled Brits. Where is our General? I thought the English won, not the French? Give us some Wellie! Far too much Boney!
The French clearly don't like to be reminded that Napoleon lost this one. So when the Belgians minted a load of coins earlier this year to commemorate this incredibly significant battle, fought on Belgian soil, the French complained, and 180,000 €2 had to be scrapped. So the plucky little Belgians have fought back - and under some obscure EU ruling, which allows eurozone countries to produce a special coin if it is an irregular denomination, they have created a €2.5 commemorative. Johan Van Overtveldt, Belgian Finance minister, said the aim was not to anger the French or revive old quarrels - but because there has been no battle in recent history as important as Waterloo, or one that captures the imagination in the same way.
We won. Get over it, France. It's not as if the coin mentions the score. If the English can live with the result of 1066, surely you can manage this one!
I'm hoping to visit Belgium again this year and looking for 2.5Euro coins will make a change from looking for chocolate! However, Waterloo was fought on 18th June, not 21st October
ReplyDelete21st October 1805 was Trafalgar! (Had to look that one up to check!)
ReplyDeleteThanks FC - I got my dates muddled there. 21st October is also Steph's birthday and I KNOW that is Trafalgar Day. Must have had a brainstorm when typing!! Error now corrected.
DeleteDon't mention the war!
ReplyDeleteGood for Belgium! The French can be so insular!
ReplyDeleteWhat bloomin routers, it is not like Germany kicked up a fuss with the coins minted for DDay or VE day, both of which I.have. x
ReplyDeleteWe also visited Waterloo back in 2002 and were mortified by the pro-Napolean bias - if you want to get your English/French war fact bias back on an even keel go to Agincourt - their visitor centre tells the truth - or at least it did in 2002
ReplyDeleteAgincourt is superb - we went in 2006. But we were amused that the English/French information panels tell slightly different versions of the battle! We think the English one was more accurate - but then we would, wouldn't we?!
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