Villers-Bretonneux was full of Australians this week, just as it was 100 years ago, but this time they were reinforcing a friendship forged in battle, a century after diggers liberated the French town from the Germans in ferocious hand-to-hand combat.
Prince Charles, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, French Prime Minister Eduoard Philippe and more than 8000 others came to the Australian War Memorial just outside the northern French town to pay homage to the diggers who fought and won the battle of Villers-Bretonneux on April 25, 2018.
Retaking the town from the Germans on the third anniversary of Anzac Day came at terrible cost - 3900 Australians took part with 2500 casualties - but it helped turn the tide of the war.
Their sacrifice is something the French have never forgotten, Mr Philippe said in emotive speeches at the dawn service on Wednesday and the opening on Tuesday of the Sir John Monash Centre, a high-tech multimedia museum designed to tell the tales of Australians on the Western Front.
"We cannot relive these stories," Mr Philippe said, stressing the importance of the Monash centre opening.
"So we must tell them ... Show the faces of these young men whose lives were snuffed out in the mud of the trenches.
"Show the daily lives of these 20-year-old volunteers from far away who listened only to their youthful courage, to their love for their country, or that of their parents or grandparents, to die here in Villers-Bretonneux."
Lest we forget is a message learned by local schoolchildren, who are taught to remember Australians, he said.
There are also Australian flags in the town, a Melbourne bar, kangaroo sculptures at the town hall and Australian-focused festivities annually leading up to Anzac Day.
There were thousands for the dawn service, many of whom left not long after, but many still remained for the football cup and barbecue later that day, in the town where Australians are so welcome.
