Our last full day started with a visit to the new visitor’s centre at Norte Dame d’Lorette the Centre d'histoire du Mémorial 14-18. This opened during the centenary years, and, in my opinion, it is a new must see Museum. An excellently illustrated and informative display not to be missed.
Afterwards we went up the hill to see the new L'Anneau de la mémoire - a space age war memorial if you ever saw one. This commemorates 500,000+ casualties of all sides who died in the area of the North of France – from the Belgian border to as far south as Bapaume.
From there we travelled on to the new education centre at Vimy - once again built for the centenary years. We were lucky enough to arrive just as a tour of the tunnels was starting so we joined this before we went across to see the Vimy Memorial itself.
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| New Vimy Education Centre |
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| Entering the underground tunnels |
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| Mine crater at between the preserved trenches |
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| Preserved trenches on the ridge |
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| Memorial to French Colonial Troops |
From there we visited some of the outlying areas of the Arras & Lys battlefields - Fresnoy, Oppy and Gavrelle. In the latter we visited the RN Division memorial and Orchard Dump cemetery.
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| Kingston-upon-Hull Memorial - Oppy |
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| RN Division Memorial Gavrelle |
We finished the day with a visit to the CWGC Experience in Arras. This is where the replacement headstones etc are manufactured - a truly magical place.
Finally we took in the Arras memorial to the missing…..another year’s trip nearly over.
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| RFC Memorial to flyers with no known grave |
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