My husband and I will be traveling though France and Germany this summer. We are both interested in history, but he teaches WWI in high school and we want to see Verdun. We've done some research (including reading the RS books) and found that trains are not too frequent between Paris and Verdun. We've also found a tour that starts at the TI office at 2pm. Our main question is about duration. The tour ends about 6pm. We cannot find information about the trains from France to Baden Baden, Germany to find out if it is possible to leave Verdun that night, or if we should spend the night and leave in the morning. We also can't figure out how long the train ride is. Any suggestions on where to find this information? Thanks.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
You can find train schedules on the German Rail website. It looks like the fastest connections go from Verdun to Meuse by bus, then train to Baden-Baden, and take about 4 hours.
Posted by
Germany, Germany
813 posts
My suggestion is to stay in Metz for two nights, then you can spend the whole day in Verdun and other area WWI sites too (Saint Mihiel is also great). Maybe you could rent a car for the day as some of these places are out in the countryside. Metz is a cute town in itself. To get to Baden-Baden from Metz, you could try going through either Strasbourg or Karlsruhe on the train.
Posted by
San Francisco
14980 posts
Robin, Staying in Metz in any of the 2 star hotels around the station does make a good deal of sense, especially if you have a car to get to the big US military cemeteries within 25-30 miles from Metz...St. Avold and St.Mihiel (from the St. Mihiel salient). I've stayed in Metz a couple of times, one time almost a week to see sights, historical and cultural. The place is definitely historical (having been fought over three major times) and interesting, but "cute" that's stretching it. Still, it's worth a good visit. Just under an hour from Paris Est is Chateau-Thierry, on the Marne, went there over ten years ago. The monument to the 3rd Infantry Division is there, could see the large American monument in the distance, 11km.... and I was on foot. Since you'll be at Verdun, depending on your time limit, the huge Meuse-Argonne US cemetery is within driving distance.