Saturday (09/07/2016)
We left the our castle hotel (great value for money!!!) in Hayange and we drove for 1 hour to the city of Verdun, in the Lorena region.
Some photos of our hotel from the previous day:
A bit of history in Verdun
It was in this city and surrounding areas that the Battle of Verdun, known for being the longest battle of the First World War (almost ten months in 1916) and one of the largest as well.
Our first stop was at Verdun Memorial (11 euros per person), a museum that tells the entire story of the battle in great detail, with many exhibits, films and audios. I think it is one of the best war museums I have ever visited. It is well worth it!
We then continued on to the Douaumont Ossuary, where the remains of more than 130,000 soldiers are kept. You can pay 6 euros to visit the top of the building to get a better view of the cemetery, but we preferred not to go up.
We also passed two forts, the Fort Douaumont and the Fort Vaux, and in the Monument de la Trenchee des Baionnettes. All loaded with stories of the battle. The photos are in order…
I confess that I didn't feel well when I walked around the area, because I found the energy very heavy (or maybe it was just in my head). But the fact is that you can see many trenches as you drive along the roads, as well as signs of several cities that were completely destroyed. It's impossible not to imagine the horrible scenes that took place there. For those who like war history, I think it's a place that deserves a few hours of attention. We stayed there for about 3-4 hours and I think we would have stayed longer at Celo, but for this trip, that's all we had.
We left there and drove for 1 hour until Reims, which is in the region of Champagne. I talked about this trip there in this post:
ALL POSTS FROM THIS TRIP
- Read the summary of our trip here: 9 days traveling through France and Luxembourg.
- Read about our trip to Burgundy: 3 and a half days in Burgundy
- Read about our trip through Alsace: 2 and a half days in Alsace
- Read about our trip to Luxembourg: An afternoon in Luxembourg
- Read about our trip to Champagne: 1 day and a half in Champagne
