Literally millions of young soldiers were killed or wounded in the First World War.  Many regions were totally destroyed, with the scars still visable after 90 years.

People thought it was "the war to end all wars".  However, war broke out again in Europe 22 years later and soon the world was embroiled in a second World War.

The Memory of these conflicts, horrors, suffering and heroism is not forgotten.

(For information on the background of this poem written by Lieutenant-Colonel
John McCrae MD of the Canadian Army, see the website -
www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm)

French Travel Boutique's Battlefields tours are planned as modules, covering three regions:   

SOMME AND BELGIUM

THE ARDENNES, MAGINOT LINE  

AND VERDUN

 
THE NORMANDY BEACHES.

All our tours are tailor-made to ensure the elements you are interested in are included.

We can organise itineraries ranging from a single day tour from Paris, through to severaldays covering multiple regions.

Sample itineraries are shown for each of the main areas.

OPTION 1
Take the train from Paris to Amiens to meet the local expert guide.*

Visit Villers Bretonneux, the Victoria school and Australian Memorial, Peronne and Mont Saint Quentin (2nd AIF Division Memorial), Pozières area and Gibraltar, 1st AIF Division Memorial, Thiepval, Newfoundland park and trenches, Albert.

The guide then takes you back to Amiens to take the train back to Paris.

OPTION 2

For Australians there is a new option which includes the recently opened cemetery at Fromelles.

Meet the guide in Amiens and visit Villers Bretonneux, the Victoria School and Australian Memorial, Peronne and Mont Saint Quentin, Pozières area and continue north to the new cemetery at Fromelles, "Cobbers" Memorial and VC corner.

The guide takes you to meet the TGV at Lille for the return trip to Paris.

TWO DAY ITINERARY

DAY 1
Same as Somme full day Option 1, but instead of returning to Paris after Albert, overnight accommodation is organised.

DAY 2

Visit Fromelles, "Cobbers" Memorial, VC Corner, Armentières, Messines Ridge, Ypres and the Menin Gate, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele and Tyne Cot.

Drop off at Lille to take TGV back to Paris.  

* Our Somme guides are specialists in World War 1 and Australian History. They are also guides at the Historial Great War Museum at Peronne and work often for the Australian Embassy in France and other official Australian groups. They do quality historical research to find specific graves or follow in the footsteps of a soldier. They are flexible and tailor make each itinerary to suit individual requirements.  

SAMPLE ITINERARY 

DAY 1

Transfer to Gare du Nord for train to Amiens.  Visit Villers Bretonneux, Victoria School, Australian Memorial,  Pozieres area: Gibraltar, 1st AIF div.

Memorial, Thiepval,  Newfoundland park and trenches, 1916 battlefields, Albert.

DAY 2

Peronne Historial Great War museum, Mont Saint Quentin (2nd AIF div. Memorial), 1918 battlefields,  Bapaume.

DAY 3

Bullecourt, Arras and the Wellington quarry (network of tunnels used in WWI),  Vimy Ridge, Fromelles - new cemetery, "Cobbers" Memorial, VC Corner.Drop off at hotel at Ypres where you will be able to attend the Last Post at the Menin Gate.

DAY 4

Messines Ridge, Ploegsteert Wood, Hill 60 (First Tunnelling coy. Memorial), Ypres, Polygon Wood, Zonnebeke, Passchendeale. 

TWO DAY ITINERARY 

DAY 1
Leave Paris by train for Caen to meet the tour guide.

The first stop is  Then on to Arromanches, part of Gold beach which had to be taken as it had been chosen as the future site of the main Mulberry.

When watching the 360° film presented on the landing (compiled from filmed records made by journalists on the spot at the time) you will be totally immersed and share the feelings of terrible disorientation and fear that must have been felt by those young men trying to set foot on the coast of France.

DAY 2
Without the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, the allies would never have been able to land an army of 150,000 men with all their equipment and weapons.

Visit the small town and the techniques used by the landing forces will be explained.

See the defences the German had established all along the coast, known as “The Atlantic Wall”.

Overlooking Omaha beach, discover the gigantic and beautiful American memorial and cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, an extraordinarily moving experience even after all these years.

Visit Omaha beach and la Pointe du Hoc, where evidence of the ferocious Allied bombing of German defences in preparation for the landing is still vivid.

TWO DAY ITINERARY

DAY 1

The day is devoted to the Maginot Line - “the most formidable fortification system ever built with the exception of the Great wall of China” .

How could the “impregnable” fortification built between 1929 and 1941 along the German border stretching from Belgium to Switzerland, with its 108 strong fortresses, fall? And so quickly, let alone at all! The answer to the enigma is in an understanding of the famous “percée des Ardennes”.

The only forts which were engaged in the battle stopped a German Panzer division for days. Visit both the small fort that stood against a Panzer division, and one of the colossal ones including its underground train.

DAY 2

A whole day devoted to Verdun : right bank and left bank.

For ten months two colossal armies hurled themselves at each other.

The evidence of this unremitting war is still visible 90 years later. The battle of Verdun was the longest in the Great War and destroyed more human lives than any other battles in the First World War.

Visit the fort of Douaumont and the Ossuary, and the Butte de Vauquois taken and retaken over and over again where each side built deeper and deeper tunnels: twelve miles of tunnels honeycomb the knoll.

Musée de l'Armée

The Army Museum at Les Invalides is a "must see".  The "Département des Deux Guerres mondiales" covers 3500 square meters over three levels and has a rich and diverse collection, from the period leading up to the First World War right through to the end of World War II.

Mémorial du maréchal Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Musée Jean Moulin

These two museums are housed in the same building and tell the history of two outstanding men who played pivotal roles during this period of French History - Jean Moulin, the high profile member of the French Resistance who was sent to France by De Gaulle to unify the Resistance and Maréchal Leclerc, a key figure in the Liberation of Paris.