Western Front WW1 Trenches

Le Main de Massiges

As we drove through the Champagne region of France we passed what seemed like 30-40 Western Front war cemeteries, each with their hundreds, if not thousands of war dead. We were significantly moved. They are beautifully maintained in honour of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

We then had the opportunity to wander the chalky labyrinth of WWI trenches made by French and German soldiers at Le Main de Massiges in the northern Champagne region, we envisaged the life of those soldiers and the experiences of the frontline families. All horrific! I don't know how true it is, but a British WWI enthusiast at Massiges shared with us that France lost approximately 30% of its people’s bloodlines in WWI.

The trenches were not much higher than head height and photos on boards there showed times when water was mid-thigh deep. There was a story of a three day ceasefire on account of flooding within both sides trenches.

The French made a small makeshift light rail to bring supplies to the base of the hill where horses were used to bring supplies up to the trenches. Water would be brought in barrel form from the river some 20+km away to replenish the troupes.

The German and French trenches were no more than 30 feet apart and they used to dig tunnels under the opposing trench and set of explosives to blow it up from beneath. When visiting Massiges the trenches are accessible for you to walk around, through and in between. It gives the visitor some idea what life was like for troupes on both sides and what it would have been like for the local population in towns only a few kilometres away. It is not possible to visit the trenches of Massiges without being moved by the experience.

Comments

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye Skye, simply beautiful. Our highlights were The Storr and the Kendram Turf House. The Storr Our GPS told us that we’d arrived, so we parked. At this stage we couldn’t see The Storr in fact we could not see much through the fog and rain. Being a wet cold day, we donned our waterproof jackets, hoods up to protect our ears from the wind. Craig felt the need to double up and wore a beanie as well. We set off, walking up the steep mountain for about 30 minutes before the fog cleared revealing The Storr, and in particular, The Old Man. The Storr are rock pinnacles, some 100+ metres high clinging to the top of a steep hill. The slopes of the hill are covered in lush grassland. Like the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, The Storr has been formed through erosion. The Old Man is the most prominent of these rock formations. The walk up to the Storr starts with a steep gravel path that gradually becomes steeper then deteriorates into uneven rocks, m...

How to take a Van-life gap year

How to take a Van-life gap year You don’t just wake up one day, book tickets, fly to Europe and pick up the first campervan you see. There is a lot of planning and organizing to make it happen. For us, it was a concept that we worked towards over two years and got serious about in the last 6-8 months. Van purchase In researching vans, we learned that we could buy one, but couldn't insure or register it without being either European residents (read: address, bank account and utility bills in the country we wished to buy the van in) or set up a company to own, insure and register the van. Now this is not straight-forward as one needs to be able to navigate the system from the other side of the world and in another language (as vans in the UK / Ireland were considerably more expensive than on the continent). There are a number of companies who provide services in this space. We chose EuroCampingCars, because they are based in France and deal in la...

Massif Central, France

The Causses is a limestone plateaux with green fertile canyon valleys. It is at the southern end of France's Massif Central. It is a vast and largely unspoiled territory with amazing scenery. For us there were 3 highlights: Millau Viaduct (world's highest bridge), Gorges du Tarn, and the Roquefort cheese caves. Millau Viaduct Loving most bridges and being fans of Lord Norman Foster's other architecture (British Museum, Hong Kong Airport, Bundestag in Berlin) we were excited to visit the world's tallest bridge in Millau. It has a structural height of 343m and is a 7 pylon multi-span bridge. It is not only beautiful with its needle pylons reaching for the sky but is also considered an engineering marvel. Gorges du Tarn A canyon formed by the Tarn River near the beginning of its journey to the Atlantic Ocean is nearly 53km long and 400-600m deep. Over millennia the river has eaten its way through the limestone plateau. The gorges are flanked ...

Mid-life gap year Tanya and Craig

Search This Blog