WW1 battlefields

I think you can expect typical early spring weather for that latitude. You can expect some cool rainy days as well as some sunny warmer days. Weather in Paris is pretty similar to the weather in Seattle, so I would expect it to be pretty much the same, maybe cooler, North of Paris.

Thank you ma’am

Which battles or fronts are you most interested in? The war covered huge areas of Belgium and France, among others.

Calais is pretty remote from most.

Amiens or Arras. Brussels/Brugge/Gent. Luxembourg/Sedan. And many more are potential starting points.

Are you more interested in one country's history there? France/Britain/Germany/Canada/USA/NZ/Australian? In order to give you a decent lead this sort of stuff is really important.

Did you have an ancestor in a particular area? What draws you to Calais?

Calais is just a place to rent a car and a railhead from either Amsterdam or Paris. The areas I intend to concentrate on are The Somme, The Marne and Ypres. The area around Verdun in particular. I originally was to spend a month, things have changed and I only have 2 weeks.

You can fly into Paris, then a quick train ride to Arras. It has WW1 (and 11) interest and the refurbished Vimy Ridge memorial is a short taxi trip away. After a day or two, rent your car in Arras. Drive through the Somme with many battle sites and, sadiy, too many graveyards. If possible, end the rental at the western side of your journey and train back to Paris, where having a car is a big headache.

For Verdun you really truly are in the wrong place in Calais.

Trains go to Reims and Chalon-en-Champagne in a flash from Paris, not as much of a flash from Amsterdam. You will be much closer to Verdun, but as mentioned just above Arras is another good choice for further around. Convenient for the Somme too.

I think I missed your nationality. Are you more interested in one country's battles or do you want as much as possible an overview?

The A4 and A26 are good (if expensive) links in that corridor.

For Ypres and the Salient you can hook off the A26 into Lille and just a bit north and a wincy bit west you will find Ypres and all the Salient monuments and trenches.

The trenches at Vimy Ridge are particularly moving too, especially the craters from the mega mine detonations, but I don't know if you are interested in Canadian.

I’m American but am on this trip want to concentrate on the British, Scottish, Irish and of course The French experiences. I’ll save the American sectors for a later trip.
Thanks to all for your advice, it is greatly appreciated. This is a bucket list trip that I’ve wanted to do for decades. I spent four decades ranging all over Europe but never specifically concentrated on the WW1 battlefields. This will be a start.

I am very much interested in your trip. I am trying to plan a trip to Bastogne and northern France, either as an open jaw between Luxembourg or Brussels and Paris - or maybe Paris round-trip, depending what flights I can get with my AAdvantage miles.

Please report back after your trip

There are more little things around Ypres and basically everything northwest of Kortrijk and Lille than I have seen anywhere else.

The fields and woods are absolutely scattered like salt and pepper with cemeteries, memorials and names which resonate through the ages.

Tyne Cot has a helpful visitor centre, acres of gravestones and several walls with the names of the never found or identified (including an ancestor of mine who was injured, returned to England, recuperated and then returned to the trenches. Wounded again and blown to smithereens when the hospital was blown up and he was never found and identified), it is a very very moving place, even if you aren't searching the walls for a name.

The Menin Gate is extremely moving with all the names on the walls and ceiling, and at 8 o'clock every night - rain or shine - the Last Post is sounded by the Ypres Fire Brigade buglers. Usually well attended by everybody from babes in arms to pensioners. Places to stay are possible in and near Ypres, but equally it is very close to Kortrijk and Lille, and not far from Bruges and Gent.

Have a look around Poperinge. The Yorkshire Trench - see here for photos and story:- http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/yorkshire-trench/

Other pages on that same website are for all sorts of other major sights including Sanctuary Wood, Hill 60 and Essex Farm amongst others.

There is also a whole set of Somme locations. When you are in the Somme you can take a ride on a little train to get a sense of the place. The wild birds in the area are fabulous to see.

I know that you are cutting back on things on this trip because of losing days. That's wise.

I remember well my searches and visits in all this area.

Thanks much Nigel

Where would I find a decent road map of these areas?

You must go to Ypres. The numerous cemeteries in a peaceful rural area really leave an impression of the impact of battles on an area. Of course, there is also a good museum there. We were at a cemetery at a rural church in England not long after we went to Ypres and saw "killed at Ypres" on several tombstones. It really brought home the huge impact of WW I on Europe, unlike in the U.S. where it's almost a footnote to our history for most of us.

A good museum to visit about WW1 is the Musée de la Grande Guerre in Meaux close to Paris and CDG. It’s much focused on the French point of view, but gives good insight about the built op of the economical, political and military tensions between France and Germany before the conflict started. Patriotism was much stimulated by the French government in the period after the Franco-German War of 1870-1871. It’s worth knowing about this period that shifted the balance of power in Europe to better understand the causes and fierceness of WW1, you can read for instance this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War

The In Flanders Field Museum in Ypres sells road maps for the sites there. Michelin publishes historical maps, but have no idea how usuable they are. As you have to drive a lot through the countryside you can use the Michelin Departemental maps (yellow cover, 1/150,000 €6). The no.301 Pas-de-Calais, Somme map (the whole part of France north-west of St-Quentin) will do for Arras and ofcourse Somme. Museum shops and local TI’s can give the info for the best itineraries.

If it's the Somme and the Marne areas you're interested in, then I would suggest seeing these towns in the Somme area since the WW1 museum is there, ie Perrone, Amiens, and Albert, and on the Marne, the town of Meaux, which was involved in the 1914 fighting, The Somme area was the site of horrific and murderous fighting in 1916.

If you saw the episode on Downton Abbey, those combat scenes depict the Somme offensive. The town of Albert in the Somme has a small WW1 museum. The area between the Somme and Arras is dotted with British and Commonwealth war cemeteries. This is the area I've tracked a good number of these war related sites.

Keep in mind that Arras was the General HQ for them, the underground museum on WW1 in Arras is under the Tourist Office, which is on the ground floor of the City Hall; this underground area served also as the HQ. The large British war cemetery is located within the city boundaries of Arras, next to the grounds of a former French Army base but now open to the public.

Amiens was crucial for the Germans in 1914 and 1918, their mobilisation plan stipulated that the Amiens on the Somme was to be teached by 30 days after mobilisation (M+30). In August 1918 it was at Amiens where it went from bad to worse for the Germans, ie losing the strategic initiative. To get the max out of tracking down the particular sites, it's best to have a rental car.

Meaux on the east of Paris is the location of another WW1 museum, also in 1914 involved in the fighting. I saw this in 2017, it's huge. On the same route east is Chateau-Thierry on the Marne, the site of the last German push to the Marne, the US Army's 3rd Inf Div memorial is there along with an Anglo-French military cemetery. I went to Chateau-Thierry in 1997.

How many weeks will you have? Can't say anything about the weather in early April. You could very well enjoy a warm spell or it can be still cold. My trips involving tracking these WW1 sites were always in the summer, starting in earnest in the mid-1990s.

On Calais there is a direct train connection to Arras and to Paris at Gare du Nord, likewise with other WW1 historical towns, Soissons, Compiegne, Arras, Amiens, Bethune, Lens, etc.

Much thanks again to all, for all the information!

If you want to go back and get the background on the Franco-Prussian War, as referred to above, the two excellent scholarly works are by M. Howard (1961), the famous British historian, and 2. the book by G Wavro. Personally, I find Howard's book far more enlightening. erudite, competent, analytical. Wavro's book is much more recent, with a bit too much editorialising. Look at both.

Another place to think about is the The Glade of the Armistice near Compiègne, the place where the Germans signed the armistice of 11 November 1918.

What the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres sets apart and a good reason to visit is that it mainly focuses on the human and moral side, the others more about the military and some political aspect of the conflict.

I was at Oxford today and listening to a lecture in the Sheldonian Theatre about the effect that the Great War had upon the University and the Colleges. Keble College was turned into a barracks, Somerville College (the women's college) was turned into a hospital and the women decamped to Merton College where a brick wall was erected to separate the women from the men.

Of course many of the young men never returned after most of them volunteered to serve as junior officers in France and Belgium. Every college at Oxford (and I have seen them too at Cambridge) has memorials to those lost in 1914-1919.

We were learning about the pivotal role that the Australians played at the Battle of Amiens which finally turned the tide and brought about the end of the war. Very interesting.

Look up Lieutenant General Sir John Monash.

You’ve gotten some great recommendations.
I’d like to add that when visiting the museum in Ypres consider taking time to go up the bell tower for great views.
An addded point of interest about the museum in Albert is that it is in an underground tunnel.
Consider including visits to Thiepval and
Beaumont Hamel when at the Somme.

As pointed out above, I also suggest going to Compiegne to see the site of the Armistice. Both Compiegne and Amiens can be reached by train from Paris Gare du Nord.

Note that as you visit the Armistice train coach, there is no seat for a representative of the US, neither a civilian nor a military representative, even though the US was militarily engaged in the war.

Compiegne is still interesting to see aside from its WW1 history. I did a day trip there in the late 1990s to see the WW1 related sites, obviously, as well as the town.

Recent NY Times article about Ypres, Belgium. Most people get five free articles a month on their site:
https://nyti.ms/2ofGeDl

A quick thank you to all you fellow travelers who responded. The information you provided will my trip much smoother.
Thanks again
Dave