French battlefields (1 Viewer)

Mar 21, 2009
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We are going to visit this area in August. Has anyone done any battlefield tours or stayed at campsites near this area they would recommend?
 

Geo

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It does make it difficult when half the question is still in yer head
French Battle fields, what area what century:RollEyes: WW2 or French Revolution:Doh:
 

weymard

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:Cool: What battlefields ? May be I do not understand well but France was a big battelfield form 2000 years ! :ROFLMAO:
Gergovie battlefield ?
Alesia battlefield ?
Crecy battlefield ?
Formigny battlefield ?
Cathare's battelfields ?
la Rochelle, Quiberon battelfields ?
Valmy battlefield ?
Somme battlefields ?
Verdun battlefield ?
Normandy beaches ?
Provence Battelfields ?
You have the choice and i forget it a lot ! Allow me to give you an advice: visit France, it is a battlefield ! ::bigsmile:

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scotjimland

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Hi

I imagine most battles sites will have either a parking area which may allow overnight parking or have Aire de service close by ..

Buy a copy of the French Aires de Service and cross reference the battle sites you wish to visit with the Aires locations ..

If you have a Sat Nav Download the Aires POIs from Camping Car Infos

If you are ambitious, plot the both locations on a Google map, you can also keep notes for each location, this will come in useful for keeping track and for others who follow your footsteps.. This is part of the fun... planning !

If all that's too much work .. don't worry about finding a site .. France is the most friendly place for motorhomes, just go and enjoy :Smile:

Jim
 

lufcdave7

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Hi Jaygee

We visited areas around Dunkirk and Normandy a few years ago. From memory the beaches where the WW2 landings took place are all accessible by motorhome and have large areas where you can park up. There is a blog by a couple called Dave and Vanessa called "the lovers guide to Europe" where they describe their journey so far in their camper/mh and she mentions a few sites on there which might be useful to you.

Enjoy your visit........ I'm sure you'll find plenty to see and many places to stop. :Smile:

(mrs) Luffy
 

paradocs

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We are going to visit this area in August. Has anyone done any battlefield tours or stayed at campsites near this area they would recommend?
As a former member of British Airborne Forces, I personally enjoy visiting many areas of Normandy where airborne drops (and even misdrops) took place. In particular, Pegasus Bridge and Merville Battery has lots of history, and you will never be short of bumping into and chatting to Airborne Veterans sat outside "Cafe Gondree" at Pegasus Bridge, the first place in France to be liberated on DDay. Look out for a one-armed veteran called "Nobby", a great character with a celebrity status who will gladly re-enact the assault by three gliders shortly after midnight 06 June 1944.
There are many aires available right across Normandy, but be aware that they will get very busy in August, particularly the one in Arromanche, so arrive early!
There is so much to see, so take your time, and above all, enjoy :thumb:
Wish I was coming too - but NOT in August!

Dave

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jaygee
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thanks for all the infor. It was the WW2 sites that we were interested ion and will probably head for Pegasas Bridge.
 

staging lady

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If you are interested in WW1 you could see
Vimy ridge memorial
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_National_Vimy_Memorial
The crater at La Boiselle
]www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/somme/laboiselle.htm
The Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel ( where there is absolutely no birdsong)
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First World War.com - The Western Front Today - Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
The Memorial to the Missing at Thiepval

World War One Battlefields : The Somme : Thiepval

Also the tunnels/cellars under Arras are interesting.
Hope this helps.
Lucille
 

kickstart

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Thanks for some good information on WW1 sites staging lady,plenty of exploring to do there :Smile:

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weymard

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World War 11...? I must have missed something :winky:

:Smile: Yes, if you want to see only the battlefield where Uk Army was engaged you must to follow all the Somme and the North of France, a lot of war cemetery (too much...) which they are often at the same place where the warriors were killed. Too much men died...very sad. Respects...
 

ShiftZZ

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Ypres and Tyne Cott, Albert Belmont Hamel have visited then all along with Verdun, a must.

They always make me feel angry and sad.

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Chris Woods

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Many french towns and motorways have places where you can park free overnight, look for the little camper van and van service point signs (a van over a drain), these sites have drains and water and you are allowed to camp there or nearby. Often they are the 'outer' car park round the town or picnic areas in the daytime, but popular free van parks especially near the coast, can get busy and unpleasantly crowded.
If you do the tour route round the Falaise gap in lower Normandy (an hour of so south of Caen and Pegassus and where the final WWII battles were fought) you will find many towns have free places and/or excellent and inexpensive municipal sites where you get loos, showers etc.
We regularly used to stop at a very friendly nicely run municipal site in Vimoutiers, there is now a free point in the car park there too. Falaise has an impressive municipal site.

Chris
 
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BUSMAN2

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WW2 Sites

We done Normandy the year before last, As someone already said Pegasus Bridge is the centre of things in normandy. We booked a site very close (just a walk along the river) from the bridge and museum throught the camping and caravan club, safer than useing aires and this is a big year over there and it is nice to be sure of a pitch. The main thing I was not expecting was driving down from Calais just how much money I spent on tolls.
It is woth it and don't forget a trip to do the landing beaches. Have fun::bigsmile:
The Barkers
 

Bulletguy

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If it's WW2 sites i'd suggest giving this place a visit
Picture Gallery for Oradour-sur-Glane 10 June 1944

A village on the outskirts of Limoges where the Nazis carried out a horrendous massacre of almost all men, women and children.

The village has been left untouched since and is there as a memorial.

I've not seen it myself as mostly i look at the history of concentration camps and post 1945 GDR, but if touring France, i'd say this is a site not to miss.

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weymard

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You can visit also the Struthoff in Vosges, the only contration camp in France, a nightmare .......................

here link in English
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strathspey

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The municipal site at Albert near Amiens is good. It is by a lake and within easy walking distance of the town. Many of the Somme sites are withing easy reach, including the famous Thiepval cemetery and Lochnagar crater.
 
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Geo

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If your really interested in WW2 info you wont do better that having a look at the Battle Bus Tour, they have a web site,
I was talked into going on the full day tour and baulked at the price:whatthe: about £45 per head including meal, but oh boy what a tour, without the guide the landing beaches are no more than sand and a sprinkling of concreat, with the passion and information departed to us on that tour, we all felt as though we were taking part,we visited many off the beat locations too unmarked on many maps, but swathed in historical events, Peggasus is a must, and was included in the tour
Its something I will never forget, sad also to see the war graves but that also is firmly engraved in memory
Also not often remembered is the number of French soldiers killed defending their country, over 200.000:Sad:
WW2 totals look something like 25,000,000 military dead
50,000,000 civilians dead
Geo

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weymard

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.............................................................................................
Also not often remembered is the number of French soldiers killed defending their country, over 200.000:Sad:
WW2 totals look something like 25,000,000 military dead
50,000,000 civilians dead
Geo

Thanks you very much for reminding of this "detail" unknown or concealed by many people, these soldiers was killed in 2 months !!!
 

Snowbird

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We are going to visit this area in August. Has anyone done any battlefield tours or stayed at campsites near this area they would recommend?
Hi, I dont know if they are still doing it,but Norfolkline were giving away a free book with most of the WW2 battle sites and also the cemitaries in it.Very informative it was too.I got mine from there website post free.Hope this is some help.Regards,Dave.
 

kickstart

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It was good at the 65th anniversary of D-Day and will be later on this year with lots of re-enactments,you can just see our van at the back next to Pegasis bridge:Cool:

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Nice aire at EQUIHEN PLAGE 3 euros a night ,overlooking beach , good access to beach and lot of WW2 pill boxes, also BERCk a bit further West , nice town lots of Vans parked in town although signs said parking height limit of 2-2 mtrs, didn't seem to make any difference to any one, but if you follow the coast road for about 3 miles you will find an Aire on the beach , free . all services and a sand beach stretches for miles with old pill boxes every where.
 
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We done Normandy the year before last, As someone already said Pegasus Bridge is the centre of things in normandy. We booked a site very close (just a walk along the river) from the bridge and museum throught the camping and caravan club, safer than useing aires and this is a big year over there and it is nice to be sure of a pitch. The main thing I was not expecting was driving down from Calais just how much money I spent on tolls.
It is woth it and don't forget a trip to do the landing beaches. Have fun::bigsmile:
The Barkers

If you keep off the Peages [toll roads ] you can drive down easily for free.:Eeek::Eeek:
 

sedge

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I have to respond on this one.

Oradour sur Glanes. Very eerie place. I want to say for me, it is soulless - but fear that may invite much :ROFLMAO: - which is very far from my true meaning. Even inside the church doesn't feel like the inside of a church - OK it is open to the sky, some of the walls are missing etc etc - but then so is the old Coventry Cathedral - and that defo feels like a Church.

If you go nowhere else, visit the huge cemetery just outside Bayeux, then cross the road and start reading what is written on the huge Memorial. If you are not moved by it, then I don't think you can be human!. If you can sign the visitors book there - I urge you to do so.

Well worthwhile before you set off, is a bit of a read of the (UK) War Graves website. It explains how and why they are set out the way they are, who was responsible for the designs, what flowers are planted when, etc etc. also the types of headstones and what they denote. It also gives details of where the cemeteries are - some little some big. All 'worthwhile'.

We were on our way I can't remember where now, and happened to pull up in a layby just outside 'a small but pretty town' in Normandy for a fag break (this is because we were on a motorbike at the time, hard to keep em alight otherwise ....) and opposite was a nice wrought iron predestrian gate and a municipal-type sign - after 2-3 drags I said I'm going to read that sign, what's that gate doing there, it's open countryside? It was the entrance to a War Cemetery so after the fags, we went in - might as well, we said, then at least we can say we've been to one ........ that holiday was about enjoying ourselves, not being mawkish - Calvados distilleries, eating, and that kind of thing - so we are 'normal' !!!!!

And now I'll say something else. I believe there were about a quarter of a million of 'our' lads (boys such a lot of em) decimated. And the French. And approx half a million Germans - the vast majority of whom were of a similar age and in exactly the same boat as 'our' lot. It doesn't excuse anything. Just makes you think.

And yes, me and Pete also shed a tear a couple of years later when we were out on an organised walk from our campsite and accidentally came across the memorial erected to Violette T'sabo (?sp) near Sussac. The other 30 people were Dutch, many in their 30's and had absolutely no idea ..... I'd kept saying that holiday I'd got that feeling I'd seen the 'high street' in Sussac before and neither of us could work out why! (Good old BBC documentaries .... )

It's surprising what you come across when you are intent on doing something entirely different and you don't have to be anywhere you don't want to be at X o'clock ......

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weymard

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"................And now I'll say something else. I believe there were about a quarter of a million of 'our' lads (boys such a lot of em) decimated. And the French. And approx half a million Germans - the vast majority of whom were of a similar age and in exactly the same boat as 'our' lot. It doesn't excuse anything. Just makes you think......................"

And you added 10 millions of Soviets soldiers !!!
8/10 nazis soldiers killed, were killed by Soviets. You can also think about it .....
 

sersol

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"As someone already said Pegasus Bridge is the centre of things in normandy."
I'm so so sure thats true,I think it depends wether you "dropped or waded" into Normany.
I bet those landing at Sword,Juno,Gold,Utah & "Bloody" Omaha beach may disagree with that comment.
After having spent many years researching this subject,I'm not sure that any ONE part of the whole operation was more or LESS important than any other part.
Just my thoughts. :winky:
wwwbattlebus.fr is the site that Geo reccomended (I remember him bauking at the cost:roflmto:)
But they will bring it to life.
Gary
 

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