General Jose de San Martin

Last weekend we had a family day trip to Boulogne, easy now that Speedferries are taking foot passengers. Superb crossing and we headed for the old walled town & 'did' the town ramparts and chateau-Musee, its art galleries and underground tunnels full of roman artefacts. A leisurely late lunch was taken in the old town square opposite the HQ of Napoleons Grande Armee. On the coast road just past Nausicaa the French National Sea Centre, is the above statue commemorating the 'liberator of the South Americas' Jose de San Martin...a cracking great statue. Born in South America he fought with the Spanish in the Peninsular in 1808 & on returning to South America was one of the liberators of Argentina (1816), Chile (1817) and Peru (1821) he died in exile in Boulogne in 1850. See Wikepedia for a full Biography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_de_San_Martín#Military_career_in_Europe

Another memorial although not military in nature is worth showing and commemorates Auguste Mariette (1821-1881) scholar and one of the foremost Egyptologists of his generation and the founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.