Friday, May 29, 2009

Verdun

A two night stop here enabled us to explore the WWI battle sites and museums around Verdun. Verdun was the scene of some very heavy fighting between Germany and France during WWI. Just out of Verdun is a massive monument built to commemorate the soldiers killed during the two years' battle. In the lower part of the large building the bones of 130,000 unknown soldiers (German and French) are piled and these can be viewed through glass windows.


Also there are some very comprehensive museums nearby with continuous running films and much war memorabilia. There are also several forts which can be toured - these are several stories deep and are cold and wet inside.


All the surrounding countryside, even though the trees have grown back, still has the bomb craters and trenches that have not been disturbed since 1918.


One comes away feeling very sad at the enormous loss of life.

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