Discovering historical sites where heroes are eternal.
In the footsteps of the Great War.
To relive the intense moments of the conflict, we have put together formulas dedicated to remembrance, with visits and hikes.
A memorial route from the North Sea to the Franco-Swiss border along the historic battlefields of the First World War.
Young men, abandoned by God and everyone, up to their knees in the mud of the trenches and between the rats and vermin, are either killed or injured in a hopeless battle against an enemy who is in similar circumstances. We are used to thinking and talking about this war in terms of madness. The Great War - as his contemporaries called it - is quite commonly seen as a period in which madness ruled Europe. Pointless waste of hundreds of thousands of human lives to the glory of the emperor and generals.
The killing fields of the First World War
Frontzate
The Frontzate cycle and walking path is located on the former railway bed. This railway line connected Diksmuide with Nieuwpoort and played a strategic role during WWI. Here lay the first line of the Belgian army as a defence against the enemy.
The Nieuwpoort lock complex is better known as 'De Ganzepoot'. This spot played a crucial role during the First World War. In October 1914, the opening of the sluices caused the flooding of the IJzer plain.
Battle of the Kemmelberg: Lettenberg bunkers - French mass grave 'Ossuaire français' - Bayerwald - Dietrich shaft - Pool of Peace (L’Etang de la Paix) - Peace Mill -
The "dead channel" between Ypres and Komen. The Great War was explicitly present here...
Passchendaele - Zonnebeke - Komen - Zillebeke - Hill 60 / 62 - Mesen - Sint-Elooi - Bayerwald - Ypres ( last post )
LAST POST - Menin Gate - Ypres
"Plugstreet Experience" : An emotional journey through a region that suffered greatly during the First World War.
The Raids on the Belgian Coast During World War I & II
The Royal Navy Attacks on the German Occupied Belgian Coast During the First World War.. Zeebrugge - Ostend
Atlantikwall - Raversyde 14-18 / 40-45
Fortification: The forts of Antwerp, Namur and Liège formed the defence line of the Belgian army in 1914.
The trench path
A German bunker and trench system from 1917!
Considered to be one of the best preserved trench systems from World War I in all of Europe! It contains 1.2 km of trenches and about 15 bunkers, of which 4 are opened and accessible to visitors.
The death wire
The Death Wire was an electric fence on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands during WWI. It was the border between war and peace.
The Battle of the Silver Helmets
Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, heavy fighting took place near Halen on Wednesday 12 August 1914. The German attackers were held back by the Belgian army and even had to retreat in defeat at the end of the day. At the end of this battle, the battlefield was littered with hundreds of dead horses and metal helmets of the German cavalrymen that shone like silver in the sunlight.
From 1914 to 1918 the west corner "Flanders Fields" was an important battlefield in the First World War. More than 1 million soldiers from more than 50 different countries were injured, missing, mutilated or slaughtered here. Entire towns and villages were destroyed. The Ypres and Passchendaele region became worldwide symbols for the absurdity of war.
The military events in northern France often remain deafeningly silent. Especially the area between French Flanders ( Ploegsteert ) Armentières and Arras sometimes seems like a 'forgotten front'.
Dark Travel wants to show that the limited attention paid to this forgotten battlefield is unjustified. After all, here too the region is dotted with peculiar memories of '14-18'. Cemeteries, monuments, tunnel complexes and ruined churches each tell their own story about the war in French Flanders and Artois.
Ploegsteert ( Plugstreet ) - Armentieres - Fromelles - Illies, the village with 200 blockhouses - Aubers - Festubert - Coal mining areas: Givenchy - Auchy Les Mines - Loos - Gohelle - Notre Dame De La Lorette - Vimy - Neuville St Vaast – Arras
In spring 1917 the Germans launch Operation "Alberich" and fall back on the "Hindenburg Line" between Arras and Vailly-sur-Aisne, a "newly built and massively fortified" defence line. The Germans who were consolidating their troops for possible further offensive operations.
When the Germans withdrew, they applied the strategy of burned earth,Lines of communication, roads, bridges, trees, houses were destroyed to slow down the progress of the Allied troops towards the new front line. "The Germans had destroyed everything, took most of the civilians, and left booby-traps, snipers and a few other unexpected surprises.
The new defensive position, called the Hindenburg Line by the Allies, actually consisted of several lines with different German names. The section between Arras via Cambrai to Saint-Quentin was christened the Siegfried Stellung.
Ecoust Saint Mein, the forest of Croisilles and the Hindenburg line. The battlefields of Arras, Bullecout, Bapaume, Péronne, Cambrai and ....
One of the most important military activities in Picardy was a series of battles that took place along the Somme during the First World War.
From September 1914 to August 1918, four major battles, including the Battle of the Somme, were fought by British, French and German troops in northern Picardy.
The Somme Battlefields
A VAST NUMBER OF SITES OF REMEMBRANCE COMMEMORATING THE MANY NATIONALITIES WHO SERVED IN THE SOMME, INCLUDING THE BRITISH, FRENCH, GERMANS, AUSTRALIANS, CANADIANS, SOUTH AFRICANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS CAN BE FOUND TO THE EAST OF THE DEPARTMENT. THESE INCLUDE MUSEUMS, MEMORIALS, BATTLEFIELD REMAINS AND CEMETERIES. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT A SELECTION OF THEM CAN BE FOUND HERE…
Albert / Beaumont-Hamel / Thiepval / La Boiselle / Pozières / Longueval / Rancourt / Mametz / Péronne / Villers-Bretonneux.
Tunnels of death.
A meeting with history and death at the gates of hell.
The extraordinary underworld of the soldiers of the Great War.
Between 1914 and 1918, hell was on the surface of the earth, but death was underground (underground fortifications, regimental quarters) Soldiers were confronted with death every day. Their fate led them to create hiding places in the underground quarries.
Underground remains along Oise & Aisne Front. ( La ligne rouge, Caverne du Dragon, Chemin des Dames, Craonne, ...... )
While the Great War is the first "modern" conflict, a large number of warriors with convictions renew myths that date back to very ancient times and take refuge in spaces that most civilisations have reserved for the dead.
The forgotten battlefields of the Oise & Aisne. Walking, cycling and motoring routes in the heart of the Great War.
Follow our historical routes to immerse yourself in the history of the First World War.
The great war in the Marne valley & Verdun was once the great agony of millions of French and German soldiers and should not be missed on a journey along the western front. A itinerary marked by monuments, ruins, necropolis, witnesses to the fierceness of battles and museums commemorating the Great War which ended on 11 November 1918.
The Battle of Verdun (21 February 1916 - 20 December 1916) was one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the First World War. To this day, it is a symbol of the senseless slaughter of human lives
February 1916, in Verdun: French and German troops become entangled in what was to become the longest battle of the First World War. Today, museums, sights and memorials characterise this area, which remains so inextricably linked to its history. Experience the trenches through the eyes of the "poilus", the soldiers of the French infantry.
3d/2n - Visit Verdun battlefields, The High Ride - The Kaiser tunnel - Argonne forest - Ravine du Génie -
Fort de Douaumont - Fort de Vaux - Mort Homme en cote 304 - Varennes - La Butte de Vauquois - Mains de Massiges -
4d/3n. + Saint-Mihiel : Tranchées des Bavarois et de Roffignac, Tranchée de la Soif, Bois Brûlé, Monument de Montsec, Cimetière américains de Thiaucourt, vestiges of shelters, firing posts, trenches and communication channels...
Meuse-Argonne was martyred and disfigured during first world war. The battlefields are maintained as authentic battle sites and remains, testimonials to the fighting waged during the Great War.
Situated between the battlefields of Verdun and Champagne, the Argonne bears the scars of the Great War.
The trenches of the Main de Massiges and the hell of Champagne mud
The war in the mines and underground life on the Butte de Vauquois
The horror of war in the forest near La Gruerie and Haute Chevauchée
The site of the Vallée Moreau
The ravine of the engineers (open-air museum of Haute Chevauchée)
The necropoles also remind us of this murderous madness: French, German, English and the largest American necropolis in Europe in Romagne-Sous-Montfaucon.
On 3 August 1914, Germany declared war on France. The Great War entered Meurthe-et-Moselle near Lunéville, Gerbéviller and Rozelieures.
This was the beginning of the Great Battle of Lorraine. The fighting took place around the Grand Couronné to the east of Nancy (Champenoux, Courbesseaux ...) and around Saint-Dié. In the centre, the German armies will try to pass through the Trouée de Charmes, located between the stronghs of Toul and Épinal. Following this, the front (in Lorraine) will stabilise for the next four years.
During these four years of war, many sinister battles took place on our territory. In Gerbéviller, the town was set on fire, looted and dozens of men and women massacred by the German army. In Vitrimont, the hill of Leomont was taken in turn, taken over nearly 8 times by both sides, on the night of 25 to 26 August 1914 alone. In Montauville and Fey-en-Haye, heavy fighting took place at Bois-le-Prêtre, a strategic passage of the Saint-Mihiel salient ......
CIRCUIT OF BATTLEFIELD OF LA CHAPELOTTE
Prices on request !!
It is less well known that there was heavy fighting in the Vosges during the First World War. A visit to the front line 1914-1918, gives it immediate impact. This region breathes an atmosphere as if the positions were abandoned only yesterday. Bunkers, tunnels and trenches can still be found here in great variety. Also in the woods, you can still discover numerous barbed wire fences, bunkers and remains of defence works.
A visit to this open-air museum with its countless remnants gives meaning to the symbolism of the war zone along the "Lignes blue des Voges".
A unique war zone in the mountains between the Col de la Chapelotte, La Tête des Faux, Le Ligne, Le Hartmannswillekopf and Le Kilomètre Zèro.
A NEW CHALLENGING WALKING / BIKING / SELFDRIVING ROUTE FOR PEACE
The Western Front Way is a new long-distance walking, cycling and self-drive route for peace, mental balance and remembrance. The idea was rediscovered in a letter written by a young soldier who served at the Battle of Loos in 1915. He wrote that at the end of the Great War he dreamed of creating a "beautiful road ... for all nations to walk/ride together in peace when the conflict was over".
The Western Front Way (1000 km between Nieuwpoort and Pfetterhouse) is a new challenging long-distance route for walking/cycling and self-drive for peace, mental balance and remembrance.
Who dares to face this challenge?
