Le Privilege Verdun

Nice country drive throughout the Verdun region to the little village of Stenay, where there is a council platz with washing machines etc, in a picturesque setting next to a canal. The whole area is scattered with monuments to the Americans, and with a large cemetery. It seems as though no Frenchman would need to mouth off at the ...

... vines that produce the grapes look entirely different than the ones we are used to, a lot squatter. Instead of going out for dinner we bought 2 roast poulettes and salad and had a beaut meal at home washed down with champagne and Pepsi Max!! When we got back to the camper about 9 I decided that seeing as we still had at least an hour of daylight we would hit the A4 again towards Verdun and find a nice quieter Aires for the night , which we did about 50 k out

Today after some home work by the kids we leave the house and head for Verdun and as usual it is raining so the tour of the city will be very fast ... a quick bite to eat and for a change of war and we are visiting some fortification from the "Maginot ligne" which is a piece of work dating from WWII it was never taken even after being pounded for days by German 88, 105 and 150 with countless direct hits ...

It's our last day around Verdun so I thought we could we should take a drive to the memorial of the "Voie sacree" or for our English listeners the sacred way. This is the only road that was able to bring supplies to, Verdun during the critical months of the battle. It is remembered with a massive monument just a few km outside Verdun and every km of the road are marked ...

... Devant Douaumont" one of the 9 villages that disappear during WWI, numbering more than 400 inhabitants it was evacuated and destroyed during the battle for Verdun. Finally we went to the "ossuaire de Douaumont" this place really deserve some respect as over 130,000 people of all religions rest in peace there. Amazing with its monument ...

... have stay in bed longer). Got a park and got out of the car park on the wrong side... that was it for the rest of the day, I was not to be trusted with directions anymore lol. We finally collected Alex; he did not look to bad considering the 36 hours flight and transit time he had to endure. We went back in the car ... back to Etain (yep another 3 hours on the road. Arrive back to base this afternoon where we just chilled for the rest of the day.

... Etain 20km from Verdun in the Meuse area. On arrival it was amazing... I did not think I left France so popular (lol).the last time I saw them all together was for my mum's funerals. We had a typical French lunch lasting for hours... more conversations than food (thanks god for that) it was a lot of fun to catch up with them all.

... met up with the rest of the tour to head out to Fort Douamont which sits North East of Verdun. As you drive along you see farmers fields, assorted buildings etc until the trees start and then you can see the small ridges and holes in amongst the trees. Trench and shell hole remains are everywhere despite 90 plus years of growth. The arrival at the fort gives you the idea that not much is there. You can see what looks like windows and doorways in the walls of ...

Recently, the master of WW1 sites, Mini Me said, Glasshopper, take stone flom hand. Well actually , he didn't, but he did say that it's time to go further out, so as there was a long weekend in the UK, we booked a ferry, loaded the tent into the car and headed off in the direction of Verdun. We left on the Friday, drove down to Dover, jumped on the ferry and headed towards Arras. It's around 400ish K's to Verdun, a bit far to drive in the night, so we ...

June 23-24, 2005 Hey everyone, the morning after the Louvre, June 23, Chris and I headed out to Verdun, a small town in central France. Verdun is a special town, because from the middle of 1916, for 300 constant days, Verdun was the sight of some of the bloodiest fighting the world has ever seen. we arrived in town around 1pm, and went to visit the tourist center. well, there we found out that the actual battlefield was about 10km away, and that there ...