Verdun and Vauquois

The Douaumont Ossuary memorial at Verdun.

Day 7: early start, clean up the place, go to Verdun. It's a pretty town, surrounded by a thick green forest. During the war this forest was a muddy wasteland. The battlefields have masses of white crosses. Parts are mown to shown the huge craters. They look like a jumble of golfing bunkers all tightly mashed together.

The battlefield was up over the hill. They never reached town.

While driving, there are many cemeteries for French, Americans, even Germans along the roads around the place.

The amazing sights of a hill in Vauquois

We stop 20 minutes on at a high hill at Vauqois, still with the trenches, tunnels and barbed wire. The boys have a great time running around the giant craters, the trenches and barbed wire.

The trenches and tunnels have been preserved.

The whole drive rolls along near the WW1 front. Arrive at Reims at 6. The car won't start.

These craters are *very* big.