Page 222 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

EXPERIENCE MORE

2 and is the most impressive of
the remaining fortifications.
Verdun The Citadelle de Verdun still Did You Know?
retains its 12th-century tower,
! F2 ⌂ Meuse £ @ n Pl de the only relic from the original Toul was the Iron Age
EXPERIENCE Alsace and Lorraine Verdun is remembered for the military design. Now a war by the Moselle and the
la Nation; www.tourisme-
abbey that engineer Vauban
capital of the Leuci
verdun.com
incorpora ted into his new
tribe; its name is
derived from the Leuci
museum, the underground
horrors of the 1916 Battle of
name Tullum.
Verdun, when about a million
Citadelle Souterraine
recreates life for soldiers
men died over almost a whole
going to the front in World
year of continuous bloodshed.
War I. A moving display tells
It is considered the worst
single battle of the Great War.
Canal de la Marne. Along
how the “Unknown Soldier”
was cho sen for the symbolic
with Verdun and Metz, Toul
Several poignant museums,
memorials, battle sites and
tomb under the Arc de
cemeteries can be visited in the Triomphe in Paris (p120).
bishoprics. In the early 18th
century, Vauban built the cita-
The town centre is domi-
hills just outside Verdun. In this
devastated region, nine villages nated by the cathedral, where was one of the 4th-century
del, from which the ring of
were obliterated without a Romanesque elements were defensive waterways, the
trace. The Musée-Memorial de rediscovered after the 1916 octagonal city ramparts and
Fleury tells their story. Nearby, bombardments. the Porte de Metz remain.
the Ossuaire de Douaumont The Cathédrale St-Étienne,
con tains the unidentified Citadelle Souterraine begun in the 13th century,
bones of over 130,000 French " ⌂ Ave du Soldat Inconnu took over 300 years to build.
and German dead. One of the § 03 29 84 84 42 # Hours It suffered damage in World
most striking monuments to vary, call ahead ¢ 21 Dec– War II but its recognizable
the Battle of Verdun is Rodin’s late Jan Champenois style has sur-
memorial in Verdun itself. It vived, notably in the arched,
depicts the winged figure of high-galleried interior. The
Victory unable to soar trium- 3 imposing Flamboyant Gothic
phant because she has become façade is flanked by octagonal
caught in the remains of a Toul towers. Rue du Général-
dead soldier. ! F2 ⌂ Meurthe-et-Moselle Gengoult, behind the Gothic
The town of Verdun was £ @ n 1 pl Charles de Gaulle; Église St-Gengoult, contains a
heavily fortified over the www.lepre denancy.fr clutch of sculpted Renaissance
centuries. The crenellated houses. North of the city, the
Porte Chaussée, a medieval Lying within dark forests west local “grey” Côtes de Toul
river gateway, still guards the of Nancy, the octagonal for- wines are produced.
eastern entrance to the town tress city of Toul is encircled South of Toul, near the
town of Neufchâteau, is the
birthplace of Joan of Arc at
Domrémy-La-Pucelle. Next
door to the house where she
was born is an exhibition
about her remarkable life.
Lying between Toul, Verdun,
and Metz is the vast Parc
Régional de Lorraine, which
takes in red-tiled cottages,
vineyards, forests, cropland,
chaumes (high pasture land),
marshes and lakes.
The Citadelle Souterraine
bringing World War I to life
in a fascinating presentation
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