Posted on 07/17/2015 12:32:02 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE
My daughter (A research librarian) and I are planning a 1 week north France-Belgium-Luxemburg trip later this fall to see the historic battlefields and "general sites" across the area. Would fly into Paris, go the the "usual" tourist sites there by tour bus, but then she wants to drive across the area looking at the area of the battlefields and sites across the region.
Over 2000 years since the Roman conquests, there are obviously hundreds - if not thousands - of interesting sites. Equally, we want to go to the more interesting architectural and battlefields just to "see" what each one really looks like: the Paris buildings, Mont St-Michel, Crecy, Agincourt for Medieval.
Waterloo (south of Brussels).
The trenches of Loos, Ypres at least. The Somme valley itself? Probably not enough time. Verdun is also too far to reasonably drive unfortunately.
Normandy (while over near St-Michel), Dieppe, Calais, Falais, the Eben-Emanual ruins, Bastogne, the Ardennes.
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What else would you add? Which have you been to, and would recommend skipping?
I know the written histories of these from many different sources, and I know this can't be a very in-depth tour at any of the places, but we want to get to a realistic number of the sites.
Yes, it is a must see. Just make sure you have your walking shoes on. My husband quit counting at 100 steps!
Agincourt and Crecy.
I know you’re looking for a real answer, but these things popped in my head, and I could help myself...
Luxembourg.
The episode of M*A*S*H where they thought the Luxembourg soldier had died. What do you call them Luxembourgians? Does anyone know what their flag looks like?
While their playing the Luxembourg National Anthem and the “dead” soldier walks out of the hospital to salute his flag.
Radar: “He got better”.
Arthur (Dudley Moore)
It’sss a small country...They had the whole country carpeted..We’re talking small...
On the more artistic side in Paris, you might consider the Musée Rodin at the Hôtel Biron in central Paris. It has originals and copies of some of the most famous modern sculptures by Auguste Rodin (The Kiss & The Thinker) and is less crowded and more accessible than many of the more famous museums, i.e. sculptures in outdoor gardens.
If you like old quaint towns with lots of water try Ghent in Belgium.
Frankly, that's just off the top of my head, and just one war. Their's Bastogne, of course, plus a whole lot more. I could spend half a year on the eastern frontier of Belgium just visiting the memorials for the Franco-Prussian War, around Metz and Sedan. Just tracing the movements of one French division over the first month of that war takes you to places where memorials for that war, WWI and WW2 are all cobbled together in the same half-mile.
And that overlapping goes back millennia... But, no doubt you already know that Belgium is a Battlefield.
Douaumont Ossuary and the Trench of Bayonets, both in Verdun. I can guarantee that images from both places will stay with you the rest of your life.
It was almost surreal as I went up to each Cross/Star of David and read the names I felt like I was having a conversation with the person, as if I knew them, although it happened well before I was even born. I tried to imagine what their life was like before the war, and how their last moments must have been like (keep in mind, most there were killed well after D-Day). You will be a changed person after going there.
I see only one response among the ones here about the Romans. The Roman sites I visited when I was serving in Germany were quite well-done for documentation and I expect the ones in France would be the same. The recommendations you’ve received are all great on the more recent sites but I wouldn’t want you to overlook a Roman site by running out of time.
>>I see only one response among the ones here about the Romans<<
Roman sites can be fantastic! But I have the impression that the really impressive Roman sites in France are mostly in the southern part of the country.
And I second all the recommendations about Normandy.
I saw the Trench of the Bayonets and Fort du Vaux when I visited Verdun in 1966. When we got back to the parking lot, we saw a guy with a pile of 75 mm shells that he had apparently dug up.
In Luxembourg, go pay your respects at Patton’s grave. For that part of Germany, Trier to see the Roman structures.
Great movie!
Verdun!
Get a tour of the Maginot line bunkers, they are hauntingly amazing.
Tour Anne Franks home in The Netherlands, not to far a drive. Remember this is what socialists want to do to us here.
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