Walking in Europe

A blog of Angus and Alison's walking tour of the Tour de Mont Blanc, Via degli Dei the Dobratsch Circuit in Carinthia, Austria, the Dolomites, Venice, and Iceland

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Photo Gallery September 11 -16

These pics are Pfetterhouse “trailhead” of the Western Front Way route starting on September 11 to Farraux on Sept 16

These pictures are from the Western Front Way route. I arrived on the evening of the 10th to the village of Seppois-le-Haut (closest campground!) via Zurich and Basel crossing the border with France on the morning of the 10th.

Early start to catch the crew!
6am start to be in Pfetterhouse to meet the cousins and crew! Clear skies and a full moon over the farms.
Pax …..peace
The crew arrives!
Note the WFW trail marker at Pfetterhouse city hall
Wonderful riding companions today: cousins Theo and Tom; fellow riders Howard and Nigel.
First day on the route is due north
Sundays are often market days along the “Velo Routes”
Part of today was along the Rhone Rhine canal system, ancient “tow paths” (horses, pulling the barges) converted to cycling trails.
Communal lunch on a cathedral wall
Beginning to see numerous memorials along the route

Day 2 pics: Over the Vosges

Switchbacks and elevation gain!
The French flower of remembrance the Marigold is mingled with German flower of remembrance the Cornflower in the German cemetery.

September 13: Saint Die to Luneville

NE then NW
Yves, Denis, Marie-Francois
Remnants of trenches in the forest
An incredibly impactful memorial. Hundreds killed in the space of a few weeks. On this spot. August/September 1915. A terrible waste of young lives.
107 year old barbed wire still leant against a tree
Raon L’Etape
Baccarat Cathedral
Gorgeous open skies!

September 14: Luneville to Liverdun

September 15 Liverdun to Verdun

Pee break!
Ancient chateau in the trees
Preserved destroyed village
Forest growing through craters
Was the main street of a small town completely destroyed
By the side of the road
American memorial at Montsec
Trenches of each side literally 50 meters apart
Old tunnel
Remnant ordinance often found in the forest or buried in the soil…
Memorial in the woods
Foxholes and shelters in the forest
The beautiful town of Verdun

September 16 Verdun to Sommepy-Tahure

Verdun memorial necropole
Ossuary
Small war graveyard at the top of a hill
Right? Left? Straight?
“Lined with fruit trees, so the soil is not wasted…”
The remnants of a village blown up from underground tunnels packed with explosives….craters left behind
“Lost Battalion” memorial to the US 77th Division in the Argonne Forest. Quite a story..
Farmers working long hours to get the winter crop in!