Somme area

Duplicate thread.

Our son has just returned from a 14 day trip with a group of students to the Somme and Yper/Flanders regions. They stayed in Ypres which was one of his favourite places. In the Somme, they stayed in Amiens, which he also really enjoyed. Hotels they used were the Holiday Inn in Ypres and the Novotel in Amiens.

Judy, that's a big help. Ypres seems to be a front runner - I don't know why. I'm just not sure if it's worth staying there if we want to visit Somme battlefields. I don't want to be moving around. We want to stay put in one area and do some day trips from there.
Again, Amiens would work except I read about the unrest last summer. There are protests and then there are protests. If civil I have no problem. We've been in the middle of them (not by choice) in Rome a few years back. So I may still consider Amiens because of its location. Thank you for sending this along.

The Ypres Salient was extremely significant in the Allied fight against the German army. The Battle of the Somme may be more widely known, but Ypres is where the Germans first used gas as a weapon. The story of what happened there over 4 major battles is very powerful and moving. I don't like to say 'must see' to another traveler because everyone has different things that interest them, but I'm very glad I went there and saw it first hand. The poem 'In Flanders Fields' was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in memory of his fellow soldier who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. Macrae was a field surgeon during those battles.

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