The thread title was originally “Tell me about driving in Paris” since I wanted to go to Verdun but have read that a car is necessary once there to tour the battlefields. That got me to thinking about renting a car, but driving in France may pose problems, though I consider myself a great driver and have logged many miles in the USA and in Ireland.
So my question now is: what WWI battlefields would you recommend seeing if in Paris for a weekend? WWI has always fascinated me and I want to take advantage of being in Paris for a weekend (2 weeks from yesterday).
I want easy access, as well as interesting sites. I figure I could devote all of Sunday to it (Saturday will be the Louvre).
While it seems like an obvious opportunity, I’ve never noticed anyone organising one-day tourist trips from Paris out to the battlefields. There are certainly tours of them available - the best known outfit - but those aren’t one-day excursions from the city.
I’ve never been in the situation, but if I did have a car and driver willing to take me out there from Paris, I’d go straight up the major A1-Autoroute du Nord to the River Somme itself. Definitely less than an hour from Paris. Thiepval, the heart of the British commemoration of the conflict, is only a couple of miles west of the autoroute.
Just be careful self-touring through the Verdun. Some of the stuff is still live, and for real fun pull a (explosive drained) grenade partially buried in the ground and find a skeletal arm attached.
It’s a bit of a drive to Verdun – about three hours – so there’s little market for day tours (especially as time passes). I wanted to do that when I was in Paris but we ended up going in the other direction to see Normandy; even that meant we spent a couple of days in the area.
There is a monument to the Battle of the Marne about 66 km east of Paris, so that’s a good afternoon’s drive, though I don’t know what’s there otherwise.
As for getting there, driving in France is easy enough if you can handle a stick shift. The signs are in French, of course, but they use pictograms and the only actual words are the names of places. There were also signs on the highways indicating tourist attractions – with the name and a picture of it. Highways have tolls, but you can pay them by credit card.
