16km 🚴♀️ sightseeing loop of Arras
Today I headed north from the Somme to the town of Arras which was the closest town to the Western front.
The British and Canadians had success on driving the Germans back but at a loss of over 4000 men a day, it came at a price.
The Allied forces called upon the Commonwealth to help enact a defence plan that involved uncovering a series of old underground chalk quarries and linking them with tunnels. These quarries had been excavated in the middle ages and Roman times and lay under the city of Arras near the Belgium border.
The call went out and the New Zealand tunnelling company responded offering 120 men. Within weeks they were on a ship bound for France. The NZers were hard workers and made excellent progress and within 6 months had manually dug out 8kms of tunnels. This created a space that housed 25,000 people safely. It had running water and electricity and a hospital with 700 beds.
Carriere Wellington
is the immersive museum guided tour that takes you 20m underground with visual movie displays on the walls of chalk. Huge contribution by NZ and meant they were able to surprise the Germans by popping up behind their trench line.
Then I cycled to the Citadel. This was originally a star shaped fortress with a star moat that was built in the 1600's as a military stronghold. It then became the army training barracks but these days houses apartments, civil offices and fabulous outdoor spaces with high ropes, mountain biking, cycle and walking paths, in the heart of the city!
Then to climb the Bellfrei with views over the Place des Heroes square. Great views over the surviving Flemish buildings (WW1 bombings destroyed 90% of the city) with chairs and tables spilling onto the huge square. It would be gorgeous in summer 😊
The rain came pelting down
and it took 15 mins to cycle back to my cheapo motel which now has items strung up everywhere to dry.
Another fab French 🇫🇷 day.
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