You of course all saw the “easterweekend trip part 1” I posted back in may, but of course after a part 1 you would expect a part 2 (or even 3)….and you were right 😉

The weekend provided enough footage to create another two videos, which have been completed, but until now hadn’t been put on this site yet (those who follow my youtube channel will have already seen them)

Day 1 we were lucky enough to accidentally bump into a Wim Degrande and his friends whose books I’ve read and he was kind enough to invite us to join him on day 3. This of course meant that we saw several sites on day 3 that we were not aware of, making day 3 memorable without a doubt.

Day 2 we spent in one of my favourite areas. It has many traces all around. We visited several valleys in which the Germans had build kamps to live in , away from the frontline (on the other side of the hills the franch had done much the same).

The traces of this habitation are still clearly visible to this day, not just by the earthworks you see all around you u, but also in the traces the small stream digs up, or that are just lying around. Things like glass bottles, a doorlock, bit of a stove etc. Everyday household stuff.

So here are video’s 2 and 3…enjoy and please comment below or on my my youtube channel

Video 2:

Video 3

Normally I do not travel to the battlefields of the first world war in summer, since the woodlands are way to overgrown at that time of year, but this August I was in my favourite area again, for a fair and a “Brocante”.

Since I had some time spare time, I decided to visit the verdun battlefield, not the woods themselves, but the area that is signposted “Champ de bataille 14-18” aka what I normally refer to as “the touristy bits”. I had actually never been there and decided after all these trips it was about time and they are perfectly accessible in summer (signposted, good tracks etc)

On the way in I stopped at Mont devant Sassy to visit a former Franco/german cemetary, dating from the early days of the war. There isn’t much left, except one headstone and the memorial of the mass-grave and from the village you have a nice view into the meuse valley. After that I stopped at Dun, to admire the same view, but from the other side of the meuse

The second day (and in the afternoon of the third day) I visisted the verdun battlefield, mainly site like the ossuaire, fort Douamont, the destroyed village Fleury and some remants of a few artillery emplacments/bunkers. I will not go into great detail about them, since these are all well documented and even signposted sites. Below some impressions, there is much more to see!

More and bigger photo’s on my google+ albums:

The trip in
Day 1: Verdun & ouvrage de Falouse
Day2: Verdun

Enjoy and don’t forget to comment, also don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for videos of my world war one trips. 🙂

 

The memorial Mont devant Sassy

 

 

The view from Dun sur Meuse into the valley

 

 

Ouvrage de falouse

Ossuaire Douamont

Destroyed bunker

Old trench

 

Artistic work inside for Douamont

On the roof of fort Douamont

This march, during the Easter weekend, me and a good friend visited our favorite area again.

On the rainy/misty car ride in, it really helps to have good company on rides like this :-), we visited the new memorial museum at Fleury. We both found the museum quite entertaining, but a bit expensive. (Reviews from others vary and apparently there are some mistakes), but all in all I sure enjoyed my time there…If you are ever around there and just curious about it all, I would advise a visit.

Just across the road from the museum they have cleared a field so you can see the actual shell damage that is still visible today after 100 years.

Upon exiting the museum we were approached by a flemish guy who , to our amazement, turned out to be the writer of 2 books we both have, about our usual area. He heard us talk and suspected he knew my friend and introduced himself. We ended up being invited  to join him and his friends on day 3 to do a hike through an area we had our eye on for a while. Needless to say we accepted gladly, since one does not often get a chance to be guided into these areas by people who have so much indepth historical information.

Day 3 turned out to be an epic day, where we got to see many things and learned a tremendous amount, but more about that in a later blog 😉

Needless to say, this is one of those chance encounters that really have made this hobby worth its while so many times over the years.

…But back to day one…Just like the previous trip I focused a little bit more on video than photo, though I still ended up with 100’s of photo’s as usual. But without further delay, below the video report of day one…enjoy!

 

Kind regards

Hans