Click here to see the day's photos.
Today I'm in Verdun, an ancient town on the banks of the Meuse River and the site of the bloodiest battle of World War I. Memorials are everywhere.
Driving into town I stopped at a National Cemetary of World War I graves -- thousands of them. In the town I visited the Citadelle and its vast underground casements, then headed off to see the forts to the East - Vaux and Douaumont - cold and damp, they were more like crypts than fortresses, which is probably how their inhabitants found them.
I also stopped at the Verdun Memorial Museum and the Douaumont Ossuary, a great Art Deco edifice built, literally, over the bones of 130,000 unknown soldiers; they are visible through small windows at shin level. Another 15,000 solders have marked graves in front,.
Tomorrow should take me to Thionville and to the nearby Maginot Line outpost, Fort Hackenberg.
No comments:
Post a Comment