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Change of plan, thought we'd take the boys for an experience.
Any recommendations please for stuff near Arras.
Aras Memorial is sobering.
la Carrière Wellington - Wellington Quarry. Tunnels built by the Brits, good little museum.
If you have transport then Vimy Ridge is just up the road and well worth a visit.
Near(ish) to Arras...
Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is pretty good. Really well preserved trenches.
Thiepval: Memorial to the Missing and the vistors centre worth a visit too.
Albert: Somme 1916 museum underneath a church (I think) was good too, even if the dummies were a bit naff.
Go to the national necropolis at Notre-Dame de Lorette. The new memorial is quite extraordinary.
Thx guys.
I remember a massive hole from an underground bomb. Any idea where that is?
If you can arrange a guided tour. I did one with my mum a few years back and it was well worth it
There's a museum in Arras which is an OK primer (kids might appreciate it more) then drive yourself round the "souvenir tour" (tourist info will have maps).
It follows a circuit near Arras stopping at various memorials and significant sites.
The underground bomb you're thinking of is Lochnager mine (it's on the tour route). I would also strongly recommend stopping at the Newfoundland memorial as it's a very will preserved battlefield, and Thiepval.
Give yourself a day and prepare to feel raw.
All this mentioned are really good to see. There are 3 Newfoundland memorials with the massive bronze stags. Beaumont hamel is on the edge of the Somme with a really good visitors centre very similar to Vimy ridge. We stayed in a camp site just outside Arras just off the Cambrai road which was really well placed for a large number of cemeteries and visitors centres. There are loads of information places with maps and info on the trails you can follow. You won't struggle to find interesting and very sobering experiences. Personally I was most moved by the small cemeteries that are dotted all over the place. Literally hundreds of them in the corners of fields and such like. Absolutely every one was immaculate.
We went to Mametz Wood, because of the Welsh connection, as well as some of the sites mentioned above. Very quiet place, on a narrow, dead end road. We walked into the wood itself, where the fighting happened. Inside the wood there were shell holes every 10 ft - a sobering experience.
I hope you don't mind a link to grit.cx..
http://grit.cx/adventure/2015/06/picardy-part-two
My mistake - the museum is in Albert.
Here's the tour map: http://www.somme-battlefields.com/remembrance-trail#zoom=10&lat=49.94503&lon=2.81937&layers=BTTT
Thanks again all.
Was last there 25 years ago.
Mind blowing then and still the same I expect