Anyone visited battlefields in France and Belgium?

[Becaroooo]

My (nearly 9 year old) ds1 wants to do this. He is very interested in the 1st and 2nd world wars generally - I read him Warhorse last year which has got him really interested particularly in the 1st world war.

We are not going on a "proper" holiday this year (due to moving house and other expenses) so told him we would go on lots of day trips and weekends instead.

He has asked if we can go to see the Somme battlefield and pay our repsects at the cemetary, but is this even possible? I am assuming a lot of the battlefiled sites are just...well....fields.

We also have ds2 who is 3 so we would need a decent family hotel to stay in.
Am thinking eurostar would be cheapest - have never been on it though?

TIA

Thanks mm she sounds fantastic. Sorry about your dh's relative Such futility

how do you bookmark a thread btw!!!??

I think if you add it to your watch list it will work.

Another way into personalising it is to look at the war memorial where you live. Our village lost many men in both conflicts, several sets of brothers. Their great-grandchildren now march with us as Beavers, Cubs and Scouts at Remembrance. It really brings it alive :(

My FIL was a Captain on D-Day and DH is desperate to take the DCs to where he landed at Gold Beach.

We went to Verdun when I was a child. It is very eerie. There are abandoned villages in the woods that were never reinstated.

Thats a lovely idea weblette thanks. I live in a village and there is an even smaller one 2 miles away and even though it had only about 10 families in total in the village, all of them lost a father, husband, brother.........

We wished that we had used the Roll of Honour website when we went to Thiepval and various cemeteries as we could have identified soldiers from our village and from DS's school.

Some great ideas Becarooo. I think it's a trip everyone should try and make at some time.

Bratella has made some great suggestions and I would second those.

I would definitely suggest that you go to Ypres for the Last Post ceremony. @ 8pm every night at the Menin gater, the Last Post is played. It has to be one of the most moving and humbling experiences I have ever had.

I would also suggest Thiepval and possibly Sanctury Wood museum (Hill 62).

We did it years ago before the kids and I would love to go again soon.

Matey what you say is so true. My dad and I managed to find my great-uncle Maurice's grave in Ypres and it remains decades later one of the most powerful experiences of my life.

Maurice was killed on his first day of action. He was 16 years old.

OP - it's a lovely thing to do, but do be prepared for the emotion of it all!

Oh, I will be a wreck!! No doubt about that! We are checking the family history atm and will look at the village war memorials too.

Thanks again, so much great info and advice x

Ok, have booked for the 1st week in June!!!

We are stopping on the way to folkestone and the way back and 3 nights at Albert.

Any info/advice on what to do for ds2 whilst we are there (he is 3.5)??

As a History teacher we do a trip for year 9 to the battlefields every year ( in 10 days time to be precise). There is a fantastic little museum in Albert under the Basilica and just outside Albert in a little place called pozieres there is a fantastic little cafe called le tommy. Food is great and in his back garden the owner has built a series of trenches and recreated scenes with things he has found. It's fab! Lochnagar Crater is well worth a visit as is Newfoundland Park and they have good guides there. Thiepval, Tyne Cot and Langemark are cemeteries well worth visiting and the first two have good visitor centres. I would also really recommend a visit to Ypres and the Menin Gate ceremony which is incredibly moving. Sanctuary Wood which is also called Hill 62 is a good visit with a recreated trench system with tunnels and everything plus a museum.

Have a lovely time. I have been for 8 years on the trot and never fail to be moved.

thanks ellie

For your three yr old, you could go to 'le Petit Train de la Haut Somme' which is a steam train ride along a track which was built for logistics reasons during WW1.

web site here

thank you somme will check that out

Can recomend the Holiday Inn Express in Folkstone, we stay there every year when we drive to France as we are driving from Glasgow. Its very close to the tunnel and is nice and clean.

La Coupole was an interesting visit goolash, and not far from the port so a good stop on the way home if the timings work for you. The trenches at Vimy ridge were well done too and all the cemeteries are so well maintained and moving.
We've done parts of the trip and it's been interesting, DS 8 enjoys it a lot and has a huge knowledge of the world wars. We go on the eurotunnel and stay a few nights, v easy.
Think whitsun week will be a lovely time to go, we are thinking of going then too and seeing sone d day beaches. Enjoy the trip.

thanks chew Very excited now...my major and mrs holt guide arrived today!!!

I'd add Delville Wood to your list.

A bit late, but if you wanted to plan your visit these websites are a good place to start www.somme-1916.com/ greatwarjourneys.com/
You could also get hold of a copy of Walking the Somme which is good background even if you don't manage to get any of the walks done.
Delville Wood is an excellent place to visit, but sadly you can't always rely on the visitors centre being open.

We went to see the cementries in Normandy - the children were too young to be affected by it, but it was quite harrowing seeing endless graves all engraved with the sort of names we use for our children nowadays, which made it strangely more real.

I think we may take the children this year.

My uncle was born in Walroy Baillon, not too far from Albert. His father and 5 of his 'tommy' pals stayed behind and began working for what was called the Imperial War Graves Commission. The village cemetery is half and half - half war cemetery, and half ordinary.

His uncles have the military-type headstones as is their right, but his df decided just to have an ordinary one.

It is not too far from Thiepval, and there is a site where there are trenches to see, too. Dd liked it when she was 9/10 and is now studying the same period for her Brevet, and is the only pupil in her class to have seen the area - as well as the only one with gf's who served in WW2.

There is also a place where you can go down into the tunnels, cut deep into the rocks where we went one Sunday afternoon, so not too far, which is where lots of people hid from the Germans.

Also, they have recently opened up the tunnels under Arras, and they can now be visited.

Sadly, the tunnels in Walroy have been closed - he used to play in them with his friends as a kid (born in 1922)