[Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. ST. WAAST CHURCH AS THE GERMANS LEFT IT (_Compare with photo, p. 50._)] [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES AND THE RIVER LYS] [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. THE HÔTEL-DE-VILLE AFTER THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT] [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. BEFORE RETREATING, THE GERMANS MINED THE TOWN] [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. NÔTRE DAME CHURCH WAS NOT GREATLY DAMAGED BY THE BOMBARDMENTS (_see below_)] _Visit the ruins of_ =St. Waast Church=, _then return to Rue de Dunkerque. There take the first street on the right and cross the Lys._ From the Bridge there is a general view of the church. [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. NÔTRE-DAME CHURCH, WHICH THE GERMANS BLEW UP BEFORE BEING DRIVEN OUT OF THE TOWN (_see above_)] [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. RUE NATIONALE, AS THE SHELLS LEFT IT] [Illustration: ARMENTIÈRES. RUE DE LILLE IN RUINS] [Illustration: BIZET. POST ON THE FRONTIER _On the left of motor-car_: TEMPORARY CUSTOM HOUSE] _Cross the Cloth Market, then follow the tram-lines along Rue de Flandre and Rue Bizet. Follow the Lys Canal, then cross the new bridge. Go through Bizet Village_ (badly damaged houses). _Leaving the ruins of the church on the right, turn first to the right, then to the left_ (the photograph shows an army hut on the left, now temporarily used as the office of the Receiver of French Customs). _Cross the frontier a few yards further on, then at the fork just outside the village, take the road on the right opposite the Villa des Roses (photo below). Leaving on the right the road to the gasworks_ (of which nothing is left but a wrecked gasometer) _the first houses of_ =Ploegsteert= _are reached._ This village lay west of the first lines in May, 1918, and was captured by the Germans on April 12 (see p. 39). [Illustration: BIZET. END OF VILLAGE, GOING TOWARDS PLOEGSTEERT _Take the right-hand road._] [Illustration: BRITISH CEMETERY AT THE ENTRANCE TO PLOEGSTEERT] [Illustration: MESSINES ROAD (_seen from the Château de la Hutte_) _In the background_: MESSINES RIDGE] [Illustration: BRITISH CEMETERY ON THE PLOEGSTEERT ROAD AT MESSINES] British cemetery No. 53 (photo, p. 56) lies at the entrance to the village. _Go straight through the village_ (in ruins). _On leaving it_, Cemetery No. 54 is seen on the right, then beyond a large concrete shelter, Cemetery No. 55. Cemetery No. 56 is on the left, beyond the level-crossing. [Illustration: CROSS-ROADS AT NÔTRE-DAME-DE-GRÂCE _The Messines Road (bordered with tree stumps) was not practicable for motors in June, 1919. Take the Neuve-Eglise Road on the left (see Itinerary, p. 47)._] _Cross Ploegsteert Wood, leaving the road to Petit-Pont Farm on the left. Here the road rises._ To the left, on the slopes of Hill 63, are seen the ruins of La Hutte Château. On the crest opposite stand the ruins of Messines (photo above). In June, 1919, it was not possible to go direct to Messines, the road being cut at the Petite Douve stream.