In May I will be traveling to Europe for 3 weeks. First week in London and then on to Berlin/Hamburg. I'm pretty flexible, but I'm wondering what the best way to visit Vimy Ridge in accordance with my itinerary would be. Has anyone visited the memorial with a touring company? My understanding is that it is not an easy spot to get to by bus/train, etc. Any recommendations, advice from personal experience, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
Arras is the most convenient nearby centre, and quite picturesque in its own right, influenced by the building styles and cuisine of Belgium. Plus it suffered plenty in both world wars. Vimy is operated by the Canadian government with university students as guides, and very well-informed they are too. You are right that access by public transit is limited. Easist way is the 20-minute taxi ride and the drivers are used to the commute. Mine offered to pick me up for the return journey and did show up a short time after I made the telephone call. Plenty of British tourists visit Vimy because the cemeteries are crowded with their dead too and some of them are on guided tours going to other war sites as well. The eye-opener was how much the battles depended on tunnels, as well as the trench warfare that is familiar from the movies.
Info on Arras: http://www.ot-arras.fr/ or a smaller page in English http://www.arras.fr/tourisme/arras-tourist-information-office.html Some nice photos http://arras-france.com/ For Vimy, Wikipedia has a lengthy entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_National_Vimy_Memorial and the veterans' affairs site is http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/memorials/ww1mem/vimy/vtour Click the red tab on the right side of the page to get tourist information.
Posted by
San Francisco
14980 posts
Hi, If you're at the Arras train station, the rental car company (used to be Hertz) is located to the left as you exit the station. It's located in a three star hotel, if I recall correctly, the Holiday Inn, (?), prior to that was the Mercure. Take the TGV from Paris Nord to Arras. To get to Vimy it's best to get a rental car. At the Arras train station is also the bus depot. I don't know about connections to Vimy by bus. From Arras to Vimy you go through the village of Neuville St Vlaast, a WW I museum is there on a corner, a poignant village. You'll see the signs for Neuville St Vlaast en route to Vimy. The ground floor of the Hotel de Ville in Arras also serves a tourist office. Lots of info there. It's an easy walk from the train station to the Hotel de Ville, 20-30 mins. Within the city limits of Arras is a British military cemetery, a large one, on WW I. On foot from the train station over an hour.
Posted by
OP
the Island, Canada
173 posts
Thank you both.