Terres de Mémoire - World War One Battlefields Tours

04/09/2024

The Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen is an excellent museum telling the 200 year story of the Regiment from the early years to World War One, World War Two and now.

It is housed in a former home of a 19th century artist, Sir George Reid, and run by a enthusiastic and friendly volunteering team. I had the privilege to have a "Private Tour" of the recreated WW1 trench in the garden by John Booth, one the volunteers working as a guide. More information about the museum on their website: https://www.gordonhighlanders.com/

18/05/2024

We have been visiting many...many sites on the WW1 Western Front but today was our first visit to a quarry used by the Germans, French and American soldiers in the Aisne. A site not really open to visitors, a hidden gem lost in the middle of nowhere. An amazing place with so many inscriptions, drawings and carvings of WW1 soldiers, I have never seen so many before. What a place to see !
Let's share the photos, hope you like it.

25/04/2024

Message just received form our customers of the 2024 Anzac Day Tour, Ron and Jenny:

"Dear Sylvestre
Ron and l would like to thank you for the amazing experiences we have had on your tour over the past three days. You
have taken us to many areas with much WW1 history, frontlines, cemeteries, trenches, monuments, bomb crater sites, picnics 🤣🤣 all leaving an unforgettable impression of what was experienced and faced by the allies and enemies throughout WW1 battles. This made today’s special ANZAC service a day we will never forget. We are so lucky to have been born not only where we live but also during a time of relative peace. We are so thankful to those who went before us who had experienced, and lived and died in unimaginable conditions, we have been saved from because of the sacrifices made by them. The knowledge you have imparted upon us during your tours have given us a remarkable insight into the past and left us with the feelings. Gratitude, blessed, thankfulness, sadness and emotions beyond words. Please continue to share your extensive knowledge. Many thanks to you and if ever down under don't hesitate to contact us. You would be very welcome anytime. Love Jenny and Ron"

A great bunch of Aussies, awesome !

10/04/2024

The Chuignes gun was a 15 inch (380mm) German naval gun, affectionately named 'Big Bertha', was used to bombard Amiens about 30 kilometres away from its position and was captured by the 1st Australian Division in August 1918. The gun, with its 21 metre barrel and concrete foundations, weighed more than 500 tons and could fire a one ton projectile at least 38 kilometres. It fired only 35 shells in 1918.

After WW1 it used to be visited by tourists and locals...until its destruction by the Germans in WW2. In the 1920s a part of the canon was cut and some bits were given to people during official visits. Here is one.

10/03/2024

Some photos of our latest trip to the Normandy D-Day sites last week, from Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha to Utah beach. Good time of the year to tour those places before the crowds for the 80th anniversary…

13/12/2023

The sky at Villers-Bretonneux today

20/10/2023

On a WW2 tour in Northern France: from the V2 rockets launching sites to the many bunkers defending the coast. A lot to see there !

01/10/2023

WW1 memorial at Wiesbaden, Germany, to the Feldartillerie Regiment n°27. The names of the towns where I used to live and where I live now are listed on it.

16/09/2023

Dennis Nessler at Septsarges, Meuse, is holding a small piece of a German plane taken by his grandfather, Francis D. Burgoon, 314 U.S. Field Artillery on this spot on 4 October 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

30/08/2023

Today was a visit to a WW2 Maginot fort in France: the ouvrage de la Ferté, also known as the fort de Villy in the Ardennes. As a tour guide myself I have to say that this tour was excellent and the tour guide Benjamin was brillant. What a story, the fort was stormed by the 71st German Division on 18th may 1940, its powerful artillery destroying some of the observation posts. Nine German pioneers climbed on the top of the fort and set explosives charges, the 15 tons gun/machine gun turret was blown up killing the first three French soldiers inside.
The assault went on, forcing the 105 defenders to take cover in the gallery between the two ouvrages... where they all died from suffocation. None of them survived.

19/08/2023

Saw the Wallabies this morning at the Australian Memorial ! Good luck for the World Cup

21/07/2023

Today Ducan was able to fix the Red Baron's plane: he's a pilot and aircraft mechanic in Australia, and I understand a specialist in low flight: very, very low... just amazing !

20/07/2023

End of our multiple day tour... what a tour, thank you to Chris for sharing our common passions. It's one of these tours that I won't forget. See you in California !

16/07/2023

A nice place to start a 4 day tour of Verdun and the Somme battlefields.

05/07/2023

Wreaths laid on July 1st in the Somme - Lest we forget

24/06/2023

The last weeks have been very busy, and the coming weeks will be too !

17/06/2023

The 8th Stationary Hospital at Wimereux, then and now. Lance-Corporal James Brown was wounded at the battle of Messines on June 7th 1917 and died from his wounds in that hospital. His brother John was killed at Messines the next day and is commemorated at the Menin Gate.

07/06/2023

Just ending a great "Battle of the Bulge" Tour with an American family. We've been to many places in Belgium, France and Luxembourg and Jimmy was able to stand very close to the spot where his father stood on 16 December 1944 at the start of the Ardennes offensive.

29/05/2023

Working on a 4 day WWII tour starting soon which will take us to France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg: 4 different countries in 4 days...

15/05/2023

13/05/2023

Our group above the Douaumont fort looking at the impressive 155mm gun " Gallopin" turret

13/04/2023

Down in WW1 tunnels - the Wellington quarry at Arras

09/04/2023

Then (1914) and now (2023): the chateau de Mondement occupied by the Germans in September 1914 was recaptured by the French during the decisive battle of the Marne. The fourth Kaiser's son is believed to have stayed threre.

25/03/2023

Le Hamel Memorial Park, Somme, France

24/02/2023

I went on a pilgrimage to pay my respects to the Indian martyrs of the First World War in Somme region in France.Here's all about all the soldiers & laborers...

21/02/2023

A day in the Ardennes in Belgium: the battle of the Bulge. For those who like heavy stuff (like myself), there's a lot to see ! Sherman, M-10, Panther, Kingtiger... most of these vehicles were abandoned or left where they were.

11/02/2023

An early morning run to the Birkenkopf, a WWII memorial in Stuttgart. During the second world war, 53 Allied bombing missions destroyed over 45% of Stuttgart and nearly the entire city centre. The Birkenkopf grew by 40.2 metres between 1953 and 1957, when more than 15,000,000 cubic metres of rubble from the 53 air raids were deposited on its summit. On one of the pieces of rubble a plaque says: « This mountain, after World War II piled up from the ruins of the city, stands as a memorial to the victims and a reminder to the living. ».

27/01/2023

On a tour to Verdun: a winter experience, we had the battlefields to ourselves...
Awesome

24/12/2022

13/12/2022

In the Somme this morning, minus 7°C at Serre Road Cemetery n°1.