September 25, 2018 Rest day in Louppy-Sur-Loison Tour of Verdun Battle Field

We are staying out of the Verdun battle field area at a small village called Louppy-Sur-Loison.  There is a a big chateau and some castle ruins in the village and not much else.  The chateau looks closed and has seen much better days.

So we were all up early and on the road.  Ken had volunteered to drive and give Agnes a day off which was great.  It was 35 kms down to Verdun visitor’s center and museum.  The museum is an ultra-modern facility which covers the Verdun battle field and life in the trenches.  It is quite dark and emphasises the horror of the war.  We had a lot of things to see and only one day so we had only one hour to see the museum.  I could have spent three or four in the museum.  It was very intense.

From the museum we headed over to Fort Douaumont.  This fort was built in the 1890’s to protect the city of Verdun.  It fell to the Germans without a shot being fired. However once in German hands the French decided it needed to be re-taken.  The fighting continued for three years before it was finally re-taken.  Tens of thousands of lives were lost in the fighting.   To day you can tour the underground galleries and the pop up gun turrets.  Life in the damp and cold of the fort with shortages of food and water in very crowded conditions could hardly have been very much better than the trenches.  Although Juerg thought he would have preferred the trenches.  Either way it could hardly have been very much fun.

From there we toured the Douaumont Ossuary.  This huge monument honors the French soldiers who fell in the battle for Fort Douaumont.   It contains some 16,000 graves plus a further 1,000 unknown soldiers. The monument is an incredible structure which has a central tower which can be climbed. I did not as we were pressed for time.  The film which is shown details the battle of Verdun which raged on for over three years without let up.  The base of the monument has windows which you can look through to see the bones of people killed in the area.  Estimates place this at around 130,000 people. 

From there we headed over to Fort Vaux which was another one of the forts defending a ridge of hills separating Germany from France.  The fighting there was extremely vicious.  After days of bombardment and frontal assaults the French were out of ammunition, water and supplies.  There were several attempts by the French army to rescue the defenders however they all failed and the defenders were forced to surrender.   Naturally the French tried for several years to retake to the fort at the cost of thousands of lives from both sides.

From there we headed into the city of Verdun to see the Verdun Citadel.  This huge underground fort and labyrinth housed command headquarters and was a major supply depot.  The tour was conducted via a robotic tram.  We boarded this robotic tram which took us through the underground passage ways and delivered a pre-recorded audio tour.   It was a very different approach to seeing this sort of thing. 

After the last the visit to the Citadel we toured around the city of Verdun which is set on the River Meuse. It was very beautiful in the afternoon sun with rowers on the river and people sitting enjoying a drink in the sidewalk cafes. 

Finally we headed back to our home in Louppy-Sur-Loison.  What a great day of site seeing. 

Tomorrow is an 88 kms ride down to Metz.  Looks like a very nice ride with temperatures in the 10-16 C range and a potential for a light tail wind. 

Terry