France and Flanders - The Great War commemorations

The memorial at Amiens

Having just finished watching the excellent BBC1 series on the Great War with Jeremy Paxman, our thoughts turned to the touring we did late last year in Northern France and the Flanders region.

We have always found it quite difficult on our travels when we visit areas that have been the scene of serious fighting. On the one hand, there we are on our holidays enjoying ourselves, while at the same time we are treading the same ground as millions of people who lost their lives in battle. 

This is obviously the the case all over Northern France for both world wars and we have experienced similar unease travelling in the Balkans where the evidence of the fighting in the early 1990s is still evident from the bullet-strewn houses.

Reminders of more ancient history near Azincourt

The memorial at Grand Fort Phillipe

Our conclusion to this, particularly with the world war sites is that all those millions of people that fought and died are the reason that we are now free to wander around Europe. Without their sacrifice the shape of Europe would undoubtedly be completely different. In a sense, we should really celebrate the fact that we have these freedoms. We have also found that when you realise the hardship that our very young people went through in the wars, it really puts any problems you might have yourself into perspective.

It was in this spirit that we toured the areas that saw some of the heaviest fighting in the Great War. There are some fantastic commemorations to the war in this area. There is a lot to take in around this area and rather than try to list them all here, try: http://about-france.com/tourism/great-war-france.htm if you want some ideas of where to visit.

We found the museum at  Peronne to be particularly interesting and thought-provoking. Perhaps the most poignant places to visit though are the numerous war cemeteries, some dedicated to the British and others to specific allied countries. You will even find some German and Russian ones. You can get a map of all of these from any of the tourist information centres.