L'anneau De La Mémoire

Huge, massive, enormous cemetery with 20,000 graves, lines of crosses. 20,000 more in the ossaries. Hard for the mind to take in, death on industrial scale. What if all these men had lived and had families...? French Veterans are on hand to answer questions in French. It is kept immaculately. The church is closed until around October for repairs. Good parking. The French paid dearly. A short distance up another road on the same ridge to Vimy Ridge Canadian and Moroccan Memorials. One photo cannot show even part of this place, would need an aerial photo, I attach just a couple.

Superb memorial to the men and women who fell in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of Northern France during the Great War. Equally, a monument to the futility of war. 500 panels containing almost 580,000 names, representing the fallen from around 40 countries are listed alphabetically with no distinction in rank, nationality, gender or religion. Four of my grandfather's cousins are listed here, three of them side by side, including two brothers. It was a humbling and intensely moving experience to see. Highly recommended. Even if you have no known relatives who died in this small part of Northern France, there is a very good chance you will find someone with your own family name. Whilst here, think about visiting the enormous French cemetery of Notre-Dame de Lorette which is literally next door. Amongst the 580,000 names on the memorial, 40,000 of them are buried here.