Stay: Verdun- citadel carpark 49.15723, 5.3734
Drove to Verdun and visited the Underground Citadel. Another Vauban design completed in 1838. In WWI it was a command centre and 10,000 soldiers lived here whilst waiting to be dispatched to the front line. The tour it self was quite different as it was in a battery operated car through only 10% of the 7 km galleries converted into imaginative audiovisual re-enactments of the events and life here in 1916.
We then got on our bikes and rode around the town stopping to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral and the World Peace Centre. Both extremely interesting.
We then drove out to the Verdun Battlefields, the front line in WWI and suffered brutal combat, even wiping out 9 villages and resulted in 800,000 soldiers losing their lives, from both sides, and with nearly as many injured. Firstly stopping at Fort Vaux, which we visited with an ipod offering an audio visual tour describing the terrible conditions and major combat experienced here.
Next we stopped off at the Verdun Memorial, which is on the site where the the town Fleury once stood. Here we became familiar with the battle fought here for 300 days and the horrific suffering in the muddy trenches.
Feeling pretty rung out, we decided to stay in Verdun and head back tomorrow to finish visiting the area.
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