Day Trip To Verdun

It is always hard to say if someone is impressed yes or not once you visit a place, but I am quite sure that most with some interest in WOI are during a visit to Verdun. There is enough to see for a daytrip seeing the places spread mostly around the north-eastern side of Verdun. To my opinion is best to have a car, so you can combine it with a visit to the often overlooked American Cemetery of Romagne-Sous-Montfaucon some 50km north-west of Verdun. For one daytrip it is likely too much, but a visit to the WOI museum of Meaux just north-east of Paris is to my opinion a good introduction to the visit as it explaines the relationship between France and Germany leading to the conflict well and so giving extra insight.

To see for instance: Fort Douaumont and Ossuary Douaumont - Fort de Vaux - lost villages like Orne and Bézonvaux - etc.

Hi,

I've not been to Verdun but in that direction east of Paris and WW 1 sites, I've seen Chateau Thierry, where US troops were injected to stop the second and last German drive to the Marne in July 1918. The US 3rd Inf Div memorial is in the town, walking distance from the train station, as is the American Church. Above the the 3rd ID's memorial is another WW 1 sight, the Anglo-French Military Cemetery.

Which war sites are you interested in seeing? US, German, British, French, Canadian, Australian? Depending on how mobile you are, ie with or without a rental car, from Paris these places on the war can be done by the RER or train...Meaux (the big WW 1 Museum), Chateau-Thierry, (with a car you can get out to Bois de Belleau , ie, Belleau Wood, where the Marines were thrown in ), going northward from Paris, Compiegne to see where the Armistice was signed and the Museum at the same site., go further north beyond Amiens on the Somme to Perrone (not accessible by train) for the other big WW1 museum and to the town of Albert (British HQ and the WW1 Museum seen from the British side).

If you want to see the German sites, that is up north near Arras and Canadian Memorial at Vimy.

In Paris be sure to see the WW1 section of the Army Museum at Les Invalides. It has been expanded since the centenary in 2014.

There is also an American WW 1 cemetery in the greater Paris area, ca five miles from the center...Suresnes US Military cemetery, upon a slight hill. I visited it once, can't help you on reaching the place by using public transportation.

Verdun would be a rather long day trip from Paris - when we went, we went out one day, stayed in the area, and came back the next (stopped in Reims on the way there or back and saw the WWII Surrender Museum). I don't remember anything other than the cemetery, but it is very moving. My mom's great-uncle was killed there at age 18; we called or emailed ahead to the cemetery staff, and they had located his grave for us, led us out there, gave us paper and charcoal to make a rubbing of his gravestone, and played Taps from the carillon. A very special experience.

There's a new WWI museum in the suburbs of Paris, in a town called Meaux.

http://www.museedelagrandeguerre.eu/en

The museum of the great war takes the unusual viewpoint of what the conflict meant to ordinary citizens and to the soldiers in the trenches. Meaux is an easy 45-minute train ride from Gare de l'est, then take a taxi to the outskirts to find the new museum.

There is lots to see including the Verdun Memorial Museum and Ossuary. This link -- http://www.tourisme-verdun.fr/en_memorial-of-verdun.php -- should be a good introduction. The museum has a film in English that is well worth seeing.

Having visited the battlefield both by car and bus, I can guarantee by car is better. The link does have some tour options.

Even in a long day from Paris, you won't be able to see everything, but you will learn a lot. I've been 3 times. This may seem odd, but the last time it was rainy and cold and really impressed me with the misery the soldiers experienced.