Lens is around four hours’ walk south, where I happily pause for a carb recharge with speciality double-fried frites (nearby Arras hosts the French Fries World Championships each autumn). The city is an emerging culture-hub with its Paris offshoot Louvre-Lens. But I push on into a landscape of slag heaps of Europe’s largest coalfields, now transformed into grassy ridges.
On the hill of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette is the sublime Ring of Remembrance memorial, an elliptical ring of bronzed stainless steel plates presented like an open book. Along its spur, Lens 14-18 offers one of the best explorations of the war.
The Vimy Memorial nearby is a monumental lamentation striking for the celestial skies, whose allegorical sculpture is accompanied by “Canada Bereft”: a peace poem in stone.
By the time I reach Arras, I’ve visited 30 Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries and memorials. The CWGC maintains 23,000 memorials worldwide. Like outdoor cathedrals, they vault with the infinite skies, their designs an homage to eternal human values.
Thiepval memorial (Photo: Ben Eley)
Arras has layers. Its stunning squares are some of France’s largest, whose pretty rhythm of Flemish Baroque terraces host vibrant café culture. I then dive into the eerie Wellington Tunnels to sense the visceral subterranean war.
It is at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme that I crumble. Its monumental proscenium arch is drenched in melancholic pride as I pay personal respects to Albert Lisle – my great-great-great uncle – one of 74,000 missing names whose remains, in Rudyard Kipling’s words, are ‘‘known unto God’’.
How to get there
Lille is 1 hour 20 minutes by Eurostar from London St Pancras. For connecting trains in Hauts-de-France, see ter.sncf.com/hauts-de-france.
How to walk it
The Western Front Way is open to all those with average fitness. The Way Trails app is dedicated to Remembrance-themed walks (thewesternfrontway.com)
More information
hautsdefrancetourism.com
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Publish date : 2024-11-08 23:15:00
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