Verdun Tours
General | 3 Days Itinerary | View Full Itinerary
This Tour consists of:
3 days guided visits to key sites in the Verdun and Argonne Area. 2 nights at a 2 or 3* Hotel in Verdun.
Verdun Memorial
Ossuary at Douaumont
Day One
8:00 Depart for tunnel crossing to France.
10:00 Crossing
12:00 (local time). Drive to Reims, with comfort stops.
4:00 Arrive at hotel in Reims.
4:30 Free time to explore the city and its wonderful Cathedral.
Tranchee des Baionnettes, with its concrete cover, built in 1922
Day 2
8.00 Breakfast
9: 00 Coach to Fort de la Pompelle, one of the forts encircling Reims during the War. It was in the front line throughout and saw bitter fighting. The Germans captured it at the start of the war, but it was won back in September 1914. Visit the National Museum there.
10:30 Coach to Verdun
12:30. Arrive in Verdun. Free time to wander around the town and get a Snack Lunch.
1:30 Meet at the Victory monument. This is a small museum in the town centre.
2:00 Coach to Fort Vaux. This is one of the many forts that were built to defend France from the Germans after the 1870, Franco-Prussian War. Visit cemeteries in the area.
2:30 Coach to the Ossuary at Douaumont.
The Ossuary at Douaumont, built between 1922 and 1932, at a cost of 15 million francs, raised by the towns and villages of France. It contains the bones of over 130,000 men and there are 15,000 graves of identified soldiers. The Jewish Memorial also stands in this ground, with the new memorial to the Moroccan troops beside the site.
3:00 Short walk to Fort Douaumont. Visit the interior, which is partially open to tourists. You will get a sense of how the soldiers lived and died in this underground stronghold.
4:00 Coach to the Bayonet Trenches. This site is known as the possible grave of over 50 or so soldiers who were killed in their trench, with their bayonets fixed. Veterans and historians now believe that this memorial was set up as a sort of pilgrimage site to those who died in the area, rather an authentic historical incident. It certainly, however, has the power to move those who come to bear witness to the horrors that occurred in these hills.
4:30 Visit the Museum at Fleury, built on the site of the old railway station of the village of Fleury, one of the nine villages obliterated by the battles, never to be rebuilt. Today, the museum houses artefacts from the war and the history of the battles is fully explained in three languages.
6:00 Walk around the former village of Fleury.
6:45 Coach back to hotel in Verdun.
7:00 Evening free for dinner in Verdun.
Fort Douaumont Today Fleury Museum
Day 3
8.00 Breakfast
9:00 Coach to Le Morthomme and Cote 304. Guided walk between the two memorials. This area was the site from which the French shelled the German positions, thus making their capture a priority for the German Army.
11:30 Drive on to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery to see the largest American Cemetery in Europe. Talk by the Warden.
1:30 Snack Lunch en route back to Verdun.
2:30 Coach to the Bois de Caures, where Col Driant has a memorial where he fell and one near the road. Walk to the former village of Beaumont, passing Driant’s command bunker. About 2km, downhill!
4:00 Coach back to Verdun to visit the Citadel. A massive fortress, with over 4 km of tunnels. There you will be taken on a automatic cart through an variety of galleries. These are animated by audio-visual technology.
5.30 Free time to wander around Verdun.
7:00 Evening free for dinner in the town centre.
9:00 Overview of the day in the hotel bar – optional.
The Memorial on Cote 304 Driant's Memorial
Day 4
8.00 Breakfast
9:00 Depart hotel. Coach to Vauquois Hill, near Varennes, on the border between the Verdun and Argonne battlefields. This hill was the heaviest mined location on the Western Front, as well as extensively tunnelled, about 17km of underground shafts and galleries. There are trenches and even today, the line of craters left behind is an awesome sight.
11:00 Coach to the American Memorial at Varennes and Cheppy.
12:00 Return journey towards Calais.
12:30 Lunch at Clermont or other town en route
1:30 Depart Argonne area for Calais
6:00 Crossing
6.30 Back for home journeys.
Trench at Vauquois Craters at Vauquois
See Tour Dates page for further information
The cost of the tour is £375. This includes all meals in England (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and BB in France, all travel all museum entrances and the study activities with specially prepared educational packs designed to go with our itinerary.
The price does not include lunches and dinners in France, as you will be free there to choose your own restaurants or cafes.
Our Company Insurance is included. However, you need your own holiday insurance, as well as your EHIC - European Health Insurance Card (formerly E111) in case of personal injury requiring hospital treatment (or adequate insurance cover). See booking terms and conditions.
