Arras - Lille 🇫🇷 67kms 🚴‍♀️

Another emotion charged day as I cycled north along the Western front.

I cycled out of Arras via lots of great cycle paths, a canal path and a range of back suburban roads. Then I was in rolling farmland.  

15kms north of Arras is the National memorial of Canada site. The Canadians were instrumental in the war fought on Vimy ridge. The museum is stunning with huge glass windows looking out to the battlefield.

They have preserved the trenches and also the tunnels and the crater holes. As you walk around the site, they have the trenches on the Allies side and in this location, the trenches for the Germans were just 25m away! The tunnels afforded surprise attacks from behind the German line.

I then cycled up to the top of the ridge where the stunning white Canadian monument stands overlooking the battlegrounds.

Back on the bike to head down the other side of the ridge through an off road muddy trail through the woods

to the town of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire which is at the base of the steep cycle to the top of the ridge. 

At the top lies the French National WW1 cemetary where 40,000 Frenchmen are buried. A huge exercise in 1920 to exume bodies from over 120 graveyard locations across France to make one large cemetery with a beautifully painted church in the centre and the names of fallen soldiers listed. It's sobering to look at all the crosses knowing that they represent real people 😥. Due to the significant logistics to return the Commonwealth soldiers bodies to their countries, a decision was made to bury them near where they fell. 

Then across the road to the relatively new "Circle of Rememberence" monument which pays tribute to the 580,000 soldiers who died in the region, 40 countries including the Germans. Anyone who lost their life and body not recovered is listed in alphabetical order. I was able to locate Great Great Uncle Ernest Warren's name. Standing there looking at the devastating number of 580,000 names of men tragically lost and never to be found was quite disturbing 😥.

I had my picnic overlooking what would have been the battlefront.

Then back on my bike for a fabulous descent and a 50km relatively flat ride along canal paths, through parklands and forests to reach the town of Lille. It started raining a few kms from the hostel I've booked for the night. It was late and I decided to make my dinner and stay in. I'll explore the town first thing tomorrow before continuing north.

This concludes my WW1 journey through France. I had no idea of the quality memorials from each nation, that there would be preserved trenches, crater sites, tunnels etc to help gain an understanding. I would highly recommend a visit to the area. Sobering and uncomfortable at times but it's a part of history that has affected multiple nations.  

Lest we forget.