French WW1 and WW2 Sites on route to Berger
- Thread starter Minion
- Start date
ZombieCake
Well-known member
The Vercors was an important centre of the Resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquis_du_Vercors and some wandering around before heading south may pay dividends https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Normandy
don't know much about things between the two though.
don't know much about things between the two though.
Wayland Smith
Active member
Depends what you want to see.
You could visit one of the cemeteries. A big (British) one is Tyne Cot.
Or the Canadian war memorial at Vimy Ridge. There was a lot of tunnelling in that area but I don't know if anything is open.
Another possibility would be one of the Maginot line fortresses.
Also LA COUPOLE : World War II bunker Museum. The V2 launch bunker.
You could visit one of the cemeteries. A big (British) one is Tyne Cot.
Or the Canadian war memorial at Vimy Ridge. There was a lot of tunnelling in that area but I don't know if anything is open.
Another possibility would be one of the Maginot line fortresses.
Also LA COUPOLE : World War II bunker Museum. The V2 launch bunker.
Boy Engineer
Active member
You can go down the tunnels at Vimy, on guided tours led by Canadian students. A glimpse of how awful it must have been back in the day. One interesting artifact is a shell wedged in the roof of a tunnel, that didn?t go off.
If you fancy something more uplifting (but not WW1 or 2 related) I can recommend the ?new? castle build at Guedelon.
By 'it' I assume that you mean the cave?
Well, we went there about 13 years ago. It's a fine cave ? a series of shafts drops you into some big old phreatic stuff, which is well decorated. The shafts are:
P1 ? 29 m; P2 ? 19 m; P3 ? 10 m (this was actually our spare rope); P4 ? 35 m
the last one being a more-or-less circular hole about 1?1.5 m in diameter, with lots ofchert nodules sticking out of the walls. Near the bottom of P-1 you have to swing into a window to continue. The first three pitches are close enough to rig with one rope; I don't have notes about the rope lengths we used (I assume that the depths I've given are depths rather than rope lengths). At the botom of P-4 there is an easy crawl (blown up by the French, I believe) that leads to the 'big stuff'.
langcliffe
Well-known member
Keris82 said:
Last time I went down there it was in a cornfield with no cemeteries in the vicinity. Or is there another one?
langcliffe
Well-known member
Keris82 said:
I think I was wrong - it looks like a wheat field.
langcliffe
Well-known member
Minion said:
Great minds (almost) think alike.
I'm going to Chartreuse tomorrow, and we're planning to spend Saturday meandering through northern France visiting and photographing some graves of men from our village that died in the first world war. I am involved with a website dedicated to the men from the Craven area that died in that war, and including photographs of their graves where possible seems appropriate.
It will be a sombre day, but I hope that Chartreuse will get me cheerful again!
langcliffe
Well-known member
Fulk said:
Yours is better looking...
langcliffe
Well-known member
Keris82 said:
Fair enough. I think that you must be referring to a different Scialet Michelier, then, and one with which I am not familiar. For the one that Fulk and I have visited marked on the map above (and which has an entry on the http://www.speleo-vercors.org website), the nearest cemetery is to the north of Vassieux-en-Vercors, about 3km from the entrance.
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