A Winter Walk In the Woods of the Past . . .

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As you may have realized by now, if you've been keeping up with these pages for any length of time, one of my areas of interest is the history of World War One, and especially the surviving artwork associated with that awful conflict. One branch of that domain is the poetry which emerged from those war years, particularly that of Robert William Service, a Scot turned Canadian who served as an ambulance driver during the war, and who wrote a volume of poetry titled Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, which in my humble opinion is nothing short of excellent. Good reading for long winter nights.
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Another branch on the tree of subjects related to WWI artwork is the sculpture and graffiti left behind by troops in various places, often on the walls of stone quarries which served as troop shelters. Quite some time ago, before anyone had even started visiting this obscure blog, I wrote a couple of posts about a gentleman named Jean Cartier who created two fabulous books about the remaining visible traces of WWI. Over a span of roughly 8 years and 30000 kilometres traveled, he visited and photographed hundreds of sites in Belgium and France where traces of WWI are still visible. You can see some of Jean Cartier's work on his website.
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It was largely thanks to Jean Cartier's books that la Grenouille and I set out yesterday to find one of the sites documented in those volumes. The location of his photographs was not divulged in the book; it took quite a bit of research, some questioning of local residents, and some hiking in the woods before a leafy path curving up a hill finally led us to the place we were looking for.
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On arriving at the quarry site, one is greeted by a large stone sphynx's face. We wondered if the nose had been broken off in order to echo the famous sphynx at Gizeh which also lost it's nose at some point in history. This sphynx was carved in the rock by a sculptor named Cadars in 1915. Despite the disfiguration of missing nose, and some idiot's initials or name carved in the face, it still stands enigmatic, powerful, mysterious in the forest, inspiring considerable awe.
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Venturing further into the old quarry, from a distance there is a work which almost resembles a bear, in the ancient tradition of cave decorations done by pre-historic man.
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Drawing closer, it is in fact a mounted military rider, the part that looked like a bear from a distance is the rock that had to be removed to give relief to the sculpture. I'm wondering if the bear image was just a coincidental result. The horse is wading through last autumn's leaves.
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Another horseman, sadly with broken legs, graces a surface. Apparently (according to one site) this is a depiction of Marechal Joffre, who commanded the French forces from 1914 to 1917.
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Rounding another corner one comes face to face with a large sculpture representing Joan of Arc, also missing her nose. A powerful figure nevertheless. As we visited the site our exclamations of astonishment rang out frequently, it is simply one surprise after another; simply amazing that a site overflowing with such wonderful art is far out in the woods, abandoned to the ravages of weather and vandals. This work deserves to be protected for posterity. IMHO a temple of sorts should be built around and over it to protect it. With guardians.
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Troops during the war lived in dreadful conditions, and probably thought often and longingly of women. This pair of parisian ladies are similar to what might have been seen in fashion magazines of the period. They compose one of the loveliest bas relief sculptures I've ever seen anywhere.
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Under the daintily pointed foot the inscription says, "Zut, voilà qu'il pleut"... "Drat, it's starting to rain !"
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Another lovely goddess has bunches of grapes in her hair ; symbolizing a longing for wine, women, and song ? The inscription by her bared breast says 1916. I couldn't help falling a little in love with her.
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In one of the quarry caverns an altar for religious services was carved in the wall, flanked by memorials to people who may have perished there or nearby. Such quarries were often used for medical posts. In the woods above the quarry there is a cemetery. Some of the people named here may be buried there. Unfortunately tombstones from the cemetery have been stolen by unscrupulous thieves. This simple place of worship was quite sobering and humbling.
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The author of the sphynx also sculpted this "Croix de Guerre", a French military decoration for bravery.
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The below sign was hanging near the Joan of Arc sculpture, stating that anyone removing anything from the site or causing any damage could be subject to being imprisoned.
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I wondered if the act of dragging and abandoning an automobile in such a place would qualify the guilty party for a few months or years in jail ? What do you think ?
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