Verdun

As our time here winds down, borders open and requirements ease, so we're trying to get a few final trips in. We spent the past few days in France. On the way to Paris, we stopped at Verdun.

Verdun is the site of one of the longest and costliest battles in history. Lasting ten months and costing over 700,000 casualties, this World War I battle was horrific on many levels. The battlefield today is large and has many sites. We didn't have much time, so we hit the highlight first: the Ossuary (containing the remains of over 130,000 unknown soldiers), which looks over the cemetery (containing a further 16,000 or so).

After that, we headed to the trench memorial (not its real name), which commemorates the line of soldiers who were buried alive in the trenches by a direct hit, their upright rifles being visible afterwards. Those rifles have long since rotted/been removed, but crosses stand today where they were.

We then went to Fort Douaumont, a structure built after 1870 that looked impressive. Before we headed to that, though, we found some trench remnants in the forest. We followed them for a bit- enough to show the kids the general idea and multiple layers. After that, it was on to the Fort, which we enjoyed from the outside (it was closing time, and we still had a ways to drive, anyway). Note the German flag flying there; Verdun is a powerful symbol of Franco-German reconciliation, and the leaders of these two combatant nations met here for a ceremony in 1984 to this end.

As we headed out, we stopped by the roadside graves of two soldiers. I don't know why they were placed separately- I suspect their remains were found here after the cemetery's completion. Then, we toured a destroyed village (note: nothing remains). Plaques showed where houses once stood; now gone without a trace, erased by horrific and constant artillery bombardment.

I don't know if my kids really 'got' Verdun. I don't know if I did. Or could, never seeing combat myself. But it's good to remind ourselves of just how many have fallen in battles over the centuries, and reflect on their sacrifice.