Bezonvaux stood at the foot of the hillside along the Meuse. In February 1916, caught between the main German attack aiming at Douaumont and the voluntary retreat of la Woèvre, the village could not be held. Afterwards, Bezonvaux remained in the combat zone and shelling gradually wiped the village out completely, even though it was of no strategic interest.

Bezonvaux stood at the foot of the hillside along the Meuse. In February 1916, caught between the main German attack aiming at Douaumont and the voluntary retreat of la Woèvre, the village could not be held. Afterwards, Bezonvaux remained in the combat zone and shelling gradually wiped the village out completely, even though it was of no strategic interest.
Population in 1803: 199 1851: 317 1901:173 Distances : 10 kilometres east-northeast of Charny sur Meuse 16 kilometres north-northeast of Verdun Post office: Ornes Maucourt tax office, Ornes annex Patron saint's feast day, 1st September (Saint Gilles) Bezonvaux stood on the floor of a valley surrounded by wooded hillsides and at the source of a stream called the Bezonvaux, a sub-tributary of the Orne. The community's population was much bigger once. In August 1252, La Neuveville in Besonval, along with Beaumont and Douaumont, was freed. Later, it was a sizeable seigneury owned by the dukes of Bar. Bezonvaux depended on the lord of Saulcy for a long time before coming into the possession of the lord of Etain. It was also the administrative seat of an eponymous provosty including Beaumont, Bezonvaux and Douaumont that belonged to the sovereign court of Nancy. Ca. 1750, the population included 20 heads of families. The baron of Coussey and the ladies of Juvigny were its lords then. In 1789, the abbess of Juvigny had the high seigneury and collected all the tithes. Industries: beekeeping, grains, livestock. (Excerpt from Géographie du département de la Meuse - H. LEMOINE-1909) In 1913, the directory of the Meuse gave the following information: 149 inhabitants - Land area: 923 hectares Distances: Muraucourt, a farm 600 metres away, 8 inhabitants; the mill, 150 metres away, 4 inhabitants Innkeepers: Mr. Nivromont - Widow Remoiville Beekeepers: Mssrs. Richard - Godfrin - Nivromont (mayor) - Savion Pierre. Tobacconist: Mr. Nivromont. Carpenters: Mssrs. Grenette E. - Grenette A. Bread merchant: Mr. Nivromont Grocer: Mr. Nivromont. Laundry women: Mrs. Lamorlette and Mrs. Trouslard. Pig dealer: Mr. Léonard. Sheep and cattle dealer: Mr. Féré G. Landowning farmers: Mr. Mathieu E. - Widow Trouslard-Mathieu - Trouslard E. Notables and persons of independent means: Mssrs. Gabriel N. - Lamorlette P - Savion P. - Wyns J.B. Lady of the Manor: Mrs. Trouslard (widow).
In September 1914, the 67th division held the front in this area; Ornes, Vaux and Abaucourt were behind French lines. In late 1914 and in 1915, the Germans, who occupied Ornes, shelled Bezonvaux on and off until the attack on 21 February 1916. On 24 February 1916, Ornes was still outside the battle but incessant attacks on the village began at 7 a.m. At approximately 5 p.m., the Germans massed opposite the village, straddling the road between Ornes and Chambrettes. At 6 p.m., squeezed on three sides, the garrison evacuated Ornes and reached Bezonvaux, where the 44th IR, which had dug in on the Bezonvaux front in Maucourt Wood, was located. After La Woëvre withdrew, the Germans appeared on the Bezonvaux road, Chemin de Douaumont, the artillery barrage that isolated the village facilitating their advance. The makeshift defences fell one after the other. On 25 February 1916, the 4th LIB and 44th IR desperately held out in the village. The Germans stepped up their attack and, at approximately 5 p.m., the line broke, with the battalion defending the village in hand-to-hand, house-by-house fighting. The Germans gradually tightened the noose and at dusk, after killing nearly all the defenders, took Bezonvaux. Douaumont Fort had fallen on the same day. The French troops withdrew to Fleury. From March to July the German troops, driven by an iron will, tried to cross the heights separating them from Verdun. They advanced more slowly than the general staff had expected and the line was stabilized from mid-July onward. It should be pointed out that at the same time, the Battle of the Somme was monopolising reserves of men and munitions.
The inhabitants discovered the destructiveness of modern warfare as early as the beginning of 1916. Their homes destroyed, their only choice was to leave. Hopes of "going home one day" gave them the strength to face the heartwrenching decision to abandon their property. For these men and women were fiercely attached to their land, which was not very generous and required hard work but was nevertheless that of their roots. The prospect of going back home one day was a precious source of support for these wretched refugees. Unfortunately, the reality in 1918 was quite different. The destruction was too widespread and the threat of unexploded munitions too great to allow rebuilding. This desolate landscape could no longer be a welcoming haven. In their deep distress they had nothing left but the possibility of working for national recognition and the survival of their village if only judicially. They pressured local officials, members of parliament and ministers, even speaking to President Raymond Poincaré, who was born in the Meuse region. Their efforts were successful. In 1919, a law endowed each destroyed village with a municipal commission and a chairman who had the same powers and prerogatives as a mayor. A chapel-shelter and, as in every village, town and city in France, a monument to the dead were built between the world wars. The monument was engraved with the names of native sons who had given their lives for their country and with the text of the army citation that the government awarded by decree. Three times a day, the tolling angelus recalls that the villagers who once lived in this forested site studded with stones of remembrance were deeply Christian.
On 24 October, General Mangin launched an admirably planned attack that took back Thiaumont, the fort and village of Douaumont as well as the village and battery of Damloup. A few days later, French troops entered Vaux Fort, which the Germans had just evacuated. The success of this operation, but also its incomplete nature, led the French military leaders to contemplate repeating such an attack with a limited objective on a front approximately 10 kilometres long. The date chosen was 15 December. Communications with the rear were re-established and the work necessary for setting up a sufficient number of guns was carried out. On 10 December the French began a fierce artillery barrage to soften up the German positions. At 10 a.m. on 15 December, French troops stormed the German lines from Vacherauville to Eix. Four of the French army's best divisions took part in the assault, in this order: the 126th, 38th, 37th and 133rd. In particular, three distinguished regiments making up the infantry of the 37th division - the 2nd and 3rd Zouaves and the 3rd Algerian Tirailleurs - left Douaumont Fort in the east, advancing all day long through snow, mud and barbed wire networks towards the front. Many soldiers ended up with frostbite. The attack started again at 2 a.m. on the 16th. The goal was to take Bezonvaux. The assailants captured two key points - Liubeck's fortification and the Kaiserslautern trench - before killing many Germans. Then the Zouaves met up with the chasseurs of the 102nd battalion belonging to the 133rd division. These brave men had reached the edge of the village on the previous day; however, the sizeable number of defenders and the organisation of the ruins blocked their advance. Despite a French artillery error and fierce German shelling, the French completely rid Bezonvaux of its previous occupiers. The attack did not surpass the objective set and the front in this sector remained stable for the next two years. The chapel's stained glass windows immortalise 16 December 1916, a day marked by the presence of soldiers dressed in mustard-khaki and others in sky blue side by side. After the fighting, the chasseurs of the 102nd LIB were nicknamed the "glaziers of Bezonvaux". The line, which the Germans held until the armistice on 11 November 1918, was materialized after the war by a helmeted marker set up on the departmental road that passed through the destroyed village, which died for France.

Beaumont seems to have been founded in 324, at the end of the Gallo-Roman period; its first name was "super fluvium orna" ("above the River Orne"). Afterwards the village was successively called Bellusmons, Blermont, Byaumont and Beaumont.

In the early Middle Ages the Abbess of Juvigny-sur-Loison had high seigneury rights over Beaumont, whose inhabitants paid her the tithe. In August 1252, Beaumont was freed by the Count of Bar and the Abbess of Juvigny. In 1635 and 1636, during the Thirty Years' War, Hungarian, Polish and Swedish troops ravaged the area, burning down villages and massacring the inhabitants. The population of Beaumont found refuge in fortified castle at Ornes but a plague epidemic broke out, killing 430 people, including 22 from Beaumont. Around 1700, Monsignor de Béthume, bishop of Verdun, elevated Beaumont to a presbytery. The first church built in the middle of the cemetery was replaced by another in 1786-1787, which stood on the site of the present First World War monument in the village centre. The Prussians then invaded Beaumont in 1815 and the Germans in 1870, when a regiment of cuirassiers entered the village on 24 August. Beaumont is 15 km northeast of Verdun. Its land area is 787 hectares. In 1911, the census recorded 186 inhabitants. In September 1914, Beaumont's residents were evacuated to southern France. From mid-August to mid-October, Beaumont was between the two lines, a six- to seven-kilometre wide no man's land stretching from Louvemont to the woods north of the village. The German artillery destroyed the church in early October. In mid-October, French troops occupied a line from the northern crescent of Caures Wood to Ville Wood and the hamlet of Soumazannes. All the land that was administratively part of the village was in the French zone until February 1916. Attack and capture of Beaumont - 24 February 1916. The relative quiet suddenly ended on 21 February 1916. Despite the chasseurs' heroic resistance, Caures Wood fell. Colonel DRIANT wanted to retreat to Beaumont, probably by the old Flabas road, which leads to Gobi (territory of Beaumont). When the columns emerged from Champneuville Wood, they came under withering German machine-gun fire. The colonel, who was bringing up the rear, was killed, but fragments of sections managed to reach Beaumont and reinforce the garrison there. 24 February was a crucial day. The sky was grey, snow covered the ground and it was bitterly cold. The battle for Beaumont was about to begin. In the village, components of two French regiments (four companies) fought off repeated attacks. As the troops of the 18th German Corps entered the village, machine guns firing from cellar windows mowed them down. The enemy formations, which were particularly dense, advanced so quickly, with each wave passing the previous one, that the French automatic fire seemed to overwhelm them and they suffered terrible losses. The Germans started systematically shelling the village again. When they attacked again they still met with resistance but the balance of forces was too uneven. A few troops managed to break through and reach Louvemont. Beaumont fell on the afternoon of 24 February 1916.
At 6 p.m. on the same day, silent hand-to-hand fighting continued in the woods near Joli-Coeur. To the west, a company's tattered remnants struggled to contain the Germans, who were trying to reach Anglemont Ridge. Suddenly a large, cheering party of Germans left Beaumont on the Rue du Moulin and reached the national road. This time the retreat was cut off. The battalion commander rallied a few company remnants (approximately 60 men), had a still-able-bodied bugler sound the charge, and thrust himself and this handful of brave men in front of the enemy on the Anglemont. Against all odds, the Germans stopped. Surprised, they did not even fire a shot. Better yet, they fell back, unaware of how exhausted the French troops were. The Germans did not try again, enabling the French to keep the road open as an escape route. Only when they were ordered to, on 25 February at 2 a.m., did the survivors of the 2nd Battalion of the 60th RI reach the côte du Poivre (Pepper Hill) by way of the Vaux meadow, Vacherauville ravine and Grillot Woods. "Partial reconquest of Beaumont - August 1917. The 32nd Army Corps including four infantry divisions led the attack in the Beaumont sector. From 20 to 26 August, the Germans turned the village into a formidable fortress, which underwent relentless shelling. On 26 August, two regiments, the 154th RI and the 155th RI, attacked but failed to take Beaumont, which remained in German hands. On 2 September, a final French offensive failed to retake the Beaumont sector. The US Army occupied Beaumont in the earliest days of November 1918.

1919 - The postwar period Beaumont was declared a "red zone", meaning that it was forbidden to rebuild the village and return the land to farming. In 1920, the prefect appointed a municipal commission. In 1925, a monument was built to the memory of the children of Beaumont who died for France. Afterwards, to honour the ancestors' memory and pay another tribute to the native sons who died on the battlefield, the interior of the cemetery was levelled, the walls raised and a monument erected engraved with the text of the army's citation to the village and the names of its war dead. The chapel was built in 1932-1933. In 1932, the decision was taken that on the fourth Sunday in September, the patron saint's feast day (Saint Maurice), "the former inhabitants and their families would gather to honour their dead and breathe the air of the land where they were born", a tradition that carries on today.

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Creation of the cemetery

The National Cemetery of Fleury-devant-Douaumont contains the remains of French soldiers killed in the fighting that took place in the Verdun area from 1914 to 1918, and in particular the Battle of Verdun. Created in 1923, the cemetery was developed until 1936. Once the site had been chosen, in 1923, the War Graves Department, with the aid of the Metz engineers’ regiment, levelled a plot of land of several hectares, where major clearance work had been carried out to recover any abandoned hardware and hazardous munitions.

Once the land was level, the avenues and graves were laid. In August 1925, the bodies buried in small cemeteries around Verdun were transferred to the right half. In November, the cemetery received the exhumed bodies from the disused Fleury cemetery. In October 1926, it received those from the Fontaine de Tavannes cemetery. Over subsequent years, as bodies went on being discovered in the “red zone” – up to 500 per month – they were laid to rest here, over half of them identified. The cemetery also received the bodies from the cemetery of Bois Contant.
In accordance with the Law of 29 December 1915, which instituted a perpetual resting place for servicemen killed in action, the cemetery contains over 16 000 bodies in individual graves, and a Muslim plot containing 592 graves. Of the 1 781 Muslim graves laid in plots or rows in 16 cemeteries, the largest plots are to be found at Douaumont, with 592 graves, Bras with 254, and Dugny with 201. Each grave is marked with a Muslim gravestone, engraved with the words “Here lies” in Arabic, followed by the name of the deceased. There is also a special burial plot for unknown soldiers whose bodies were discovered recently. Six French soldiers killed in the Second World War are buried here.

Historical information

 The Battle of Verdun

Forty kilometres from the German border established in 1871, the village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont had a population of 422 in 1913. By September 1914, at the end of the First Battle of the Marne, the front line had reached the outskirts of Fleury and became entrenched to the north of the village. Located on the road between Verdun and Douaumont, at the heart of a major fortified position, in 1915 Fleury was naturally incorporated in the fortified area of Verdun, i.e. at the convergence between the two opposing armies.

On 21 February 1916, Operation Gericht, the brainchild of General Falkenhayn, was launched against the French positions. From February to December 1916, French and German troops fought one another in what was one of the most terrible battles of the Great War. From the outset of the offensive, the village came under severe bombardment, and was immediately evacuated. After the fall of Fort Douaumont, on 25 February, Fleury became particularly exposed to pressure from the enemy. Situated between the fortifications of Froideterre and Souville, it lay at the heart of the defence of Verdun.

By May 1916, the village was in ruins. After the loss of Fort Vaux, on 7 June, Fleury became decisive in the battle for Verdun. Fierce grenade battles took place here, giving the French considerable cause for concern. Between June and August, the village changed hands 16 times. In this fiercely contested sector, where the units engaged soon reached the limit of their strength, the French troops of the 128th and 130th Infantry Divisions vied with each other in audacity against the Bavarian guard and the elite units of the Alpenkorps. Stepping up the battering, the Germans were now no more than four kilometres from Verdun. On 11 July 1916, they captured the Fleury powder magazine, a munitions store dug out of the rock, ten metres below ground.

Yet the German impetus was halted, because the French soldiers had received orders to stand firm everywhere and counter-attack with whatever resources were available. At considerable human cost, the French clung to their positions and succeeded in defusing the pressure from the enemy. The ruins of the village were finally retaken on 18 August by the marsouins of the Colonial Infantry Regiment of Morocco, and were used as a base for the autumn offensives whose objective was to recapture the forts of Douaumont and Vaux.

There is nothing left of the village and surrounding farms. In 1918, the village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont was one of 12 villages in the department awarded the status of “village meusien mort pour la France” (Meuse village that died for France). After receiving an army citation in September 1920, the ruins of the village of Fleury were included in the “red zone”, over time becoming a key remembrance site of the Battle of Verdun.

The ossuary

Officially opened on 23 June 1929 by President Gaston Doumergue, the national cemetery was bound up with the construction of the Douaumont ossuary, since there had been no front-line cemetery here during the First World War. Dominating the cemetery, this imposing monument was erected on the initiative of Monseigneur Ginisty, bishop of Verdun. From as early as 1919, it was often impossible to attribute an identity, or even a nationality, to hundreds of thousands of remains found scattered across the sectors of the Verdun region. Monseigneur Ginisty, chairman of the ossuary’s committee, travelled throughout France and across the world giving talks to raise the funds needed to erect the final monument.

The first stone was laid on 20 August 1920 by Marshal Pétain, honorary chairman of the ossuary’s committee. The transfer of the bones from the temporary ossuary to the permanent ossuary took place in September 1927. It was officially opened on 7 August 1932 by President Albert Lebrun, at a ceremony attended by French and foreign dignitaries and a huge crowd of veterans, pilgrims and families of the dead and disappeared.

With its grandness and clean lines, this imposing structure was designed by Léon Azéma, Max Edrei and Jacques Hardy. The main body of the monument consists of a 137-metre-long cloister, with recesses housing the 46 tombs (one for each main sector of the battlefield, from Avocourt to Les Éparges) containing the remains of 130 000 French and German soldiers. In line with the cloister, above the main porch, stands a “Tower of the Dead” in the form of a lighthouse whose rotating beam illuminates the former battlefield.  Rising to a height of 46 metres, the tower offers panoramic views and from it a two-tonne bell, the “Bell of Victory”, rings out at each ceremony.
Today, the monument is part of the Meuse landscape. For some, it resembles a sword embedded in the earth up to its hilt, with only the handle showing, serving as a lantern. For others, the tower evokes a shell, a symbol the industrialisation of this major battle of the First World War. Meanwhile, the cloister may evoke the soldiers’ heroic defence of Verdun, or embody the Verdun fortifications, against which waves of enemy attacks proved in vain.

Close to the cemetery are two other religious monuments. One, erected in 1938, is in memory of the Jewish soldiers who died for France in the First World War. The other, located in the commune of Douaumont and unveiled in 2006, honours the Muslim soldiers killed in that conflict.

At the foot of the main staircase, the remains of General François Anselin, killed in action on 24 October 1916, were buried in 1948. Assigned on request to the command of the 214th Brigade, he was mortally wounded by shrapnel while conducting operations in the Poudrière ravine aimed at recapturing Fort Douaumont.

Facing the cemetery, a plaque remembers the historic handshake between President François Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl that sealed Franco-German reconciliation in 1984.

The complex comprising the National Cemetery of Fleury-devant-Douaumont and the Bayonet Trench is classed as a Major National Remembrance Site, in honour of the sacrifice made by French soldiers in the Great War at Verdun (1914-18).

Ossuaire de Douaumont

55 100 Douaumont

Tél. : 03.29.84.54.81

Fax : 03.29.86.56.54

Mail : infos@verdun-douaumont.com

Departmental Tourist Board
Tel.: +33 (0)3.29.45.78.40

Verdun National Cemeteries Department

13, rue du 19ème BCP

55100 Verdun

Tel.: +33 (0)3.29.86.02.96

Fax: +33 (0)3.29.86.33.06

Email: diracmetz@wanadoo.fr

Opening times

The National Cemetery of Douaumont is open to the public all year round.
Douaumont Ossuary is open to the public free of charge from September to November. 9 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm / 6 pm - December: 2 pm to 5 pm - 
Closed from 1 February to the February school holidays - March: 9 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 5.30 pm - April to August: 9 am to 6 pm / 6.30 pm

Douaumont Ossuary

Meuse Departemental Authority

Meuse Tourist Board

Verdun tTrism Office

Initially a private collection, this project grew to such an extent that it turned into a veritable museum overseen by the “Mémoire des combattants en Gascogne” (Memory of the Gascony Fighters) association.

From the beginning, the founders placed their museum space at the crossroads of remembrance and the memory of contemporary conflicts.

The choice was thus made to offer visitors a historical journey through the two World Wars.

The museum chronologically presents the evolution of soldiers’ arms and uniforms from the Great War to the Résistance.

This undertaking is unique in the Gers department and presents widely diverse collections for the pleasure and interest of all:

front pages of newspapers, photos, posters, letters, brassards, containers, arms, uniforms, etc.

Visits and admission price: The museum is open year-round to all, free of charge, by appointment.

Musée des anciens combattants pour la liberté

Museum of the veterans of the fight for freedom:

Malherbe - 32500 Brugnens - Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 06 14 51

Association “Mémoire des combattants en Gascogne”

“Memory of the Gascony Fighters” Association:

Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 06 62 06

e-mail: elian.dasilva@wanadoo.fr

e-mail: xavier.da-silva@orange.fr

Office National des Anciens Combattants du Gers

Gers National Office of Veterans:

29, chemin de Baron – 32000 Auch – Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 05 01 32 – Fax: +33 (0)5 62 05 51 05

e-mail: dir.sd32@onacvg.fr

This fine property, built in the typical Bigorre style, is located in the heart of Tarbes’ old town, near the cathedral, and contains the personal belongings of Foch and his family.

Since the end of the First World War, a plaque has reminded passers-by that the Supreme Allied Commander was born here. 

A listed building since 1938, the house was made into a museum in 1951.

On 1 March 2008, ownership of the property was transferred from the French State to the City of Tarbes.

A typical 18th-century Bigorre house, it is of particular architectural interest, with its balustered exterior gallery with pelmets and marble-framed windows. Inside is a fine staircase in carved wood, imitating 17th-century ironwork.

This intimate setting was where Ferdinand Foch spent the first 12 years of his life. Today, the family home houses the personal belongings and mementos of Foch the officer. Portraits depict the military man who was made a Marshal of France, a British Field Marshal and a Marshal of Poland.

The collection consists of personal belongings of Foch and his family, which chart both his personal journey and his public life as a Marshal of France. One room is devoted to the gratitude of the Allied countries.

A graduate of the École Polytechnique, a trained artilleryman and a teacher of tactics of warfare, Foch is remembered as one of the great figures of the First World War, who led the Allies to victory. Marshal Foch died on 20 March 1929 in Paris, leaving behind the memory of international gratitude.

Maison Natale du Maréchal Foch
2, rue de la Victoire - 65000 Tarbes
Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 93 19 02
Email: musee@mairie-tarbes.fr

Tarbes City Council

The capital of the Basse-Navarre and an important crossing route over the Pyrenees, Saint Jean Pied de Port, known in Basque as Donibane Garazi, was founded at the end of the 12th Century under the reign of the last kings of Navarre to protect the course of the river and access to the Roncevaux and Bentarte passes. Built on the site of the former fortified château of the kings of Navarre, the Citadel, which has recently been restored, looks over the walled town. It is a fine example of the defensive system of "Vauban-style" fortifications, with a glacis, moats, walls flanked by bastions with arrow loops, firearms, swing bridges, draw bridges and portcullis.

Constructed by Chevalier Deville in 1628 under the reign of Richelieu, during a time of religious wars and Franco-Spanish conflicts, it was later modified by Vauban. Vauban improved the defensive system, which consisted of four bastions, and planned outlying forts such as the redoubts, as well as the fortification of the whole of the town - only the first part of the project would be carried out. It is accessed by a ramp. In the western demi-lune there is a view over the town and the Cize basin. Around the internal courtyard and against the ramparts constructed above the underground vaulted casemates, are huddled the barracks, the governor's quarters and chapel, the powder stores and the well.
It was from this military position that in 1793 and 1794 all the expeditions against Spain were carried out, during which the Volunteers and later, the 10 companies of Basque Chasseurs distinguished themselves under the command of the would-be Marshal Harispe. In 1814, the Citadel did not succumb under pressure from Anglo-Hispanic-Portuguese troops and the war ended before it surrendered. During the 1914-18 war, German prisoners and French disciplinarians were held there. The premises would be used as a barracks until 1923.
Between 1936 and 1939, having become council property, the Citadel accommodated 500 Basque refugee children fleeing from the Spanish Civil War. The fortress is now home to a secondary education college.
Mairie de Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port 13 place Charles de Gaulle 64220 Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Tél. : 05.59.37.00.92 Fax : 05.59.37.99.78 E-mail : mairie.stjeanpieddeport@wanadoo.fr Horaires d'ouverture du lundi au vendredi de 08h30 à 12h00 et de 14h00 à 17h30 Tourist Information Office 14, Place Charles de Gaulle 64220 Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Tel. +33 (0) 5 59 37 03 57 Fax: +33 (0) 5 59 37 34 91 E-mail:saint.jean.pied.de.port@wanadoo.fr

To fly like a bird and get closer to the stars the human dreamed, invented, then constructed any kind of machines : balloons, planes, helicopters, rockets, satellites. This is the history of a dream, which is finally attained and which is told by the air and space museums

The French air and space museum is the most ancient aeronautic museum of the world. It recounts the amazing adventure of the pioneers from the beginning of our century, the beginning of a long journey which will lead 50 years later the man to walk on the moon.
Created after the First World war it will be built in the Brouget airport in 1975. Since the opening of the great gallery where the most ancient machines are exhibited, and the inauguration in April 1995 of the two new halls, the air and space museum shows through a collection of almost 200 machines and 300 artistic objects a complete panorama of the aerospace, starting from the first balloons in 1793 and ending with the Ariane 5. rocket.
Address : Air and space museum (Musée de l'air et de l'espace) Airport Paris - Le Bourget BP 173 93 352 Le Bourget cedex Information : +33 (O)1 49 92 70 00 Home : +33 (O)1 49 92 70 62 E-mail : ecrire@museeairespace.fr Timetable : The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday : 10:00 to 18:00, 1 April to 30 September and from 10:00 to 17:00 from October 1 to March 31. Closed Mondays. Exceptional closing December 25 and January 1 Public Transports : Motorway: from the A1, exit Bourget; from the A3, exit Blanc-Mesnil RER (Train) : line B, stop "gare du Bourget" then take bus number 152. Subway : line 7. Tariffs : Access to permanent collections is free. For entertainment, visit the museum.

Built after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, the Fort at Champigny-sur-Marne was intended for the protection of the capital. It forms part of the first defensive network designed by Séré de Rivières. It was built between 1878 and 1880 and has a surface area of 4 hectares. Its position was determined by lessons learned from the war: in December 1870 the Prussians had established two batteries just to the west of this site. Listed as of secondary importance by the legislation of 1874, its role was to block the railway line towards Troyes and to occupy the position of the Prussian batteries of 1870.

This fort with a central section is made up of a front, two flanks and a gorge. The trench, which is edged by a counterscarp and a semi-detached scarp, is separated by two caponiers, a basic one and one with a gorge. The ridge of the rampart is intersected by 13 cross sections, 6 of which have shelters. One of the northern cross sections houses the powder magazine (capacity of 80 tonnes). A passage underneath one of the southern cross sections was built in such a way as to serve as a casemate against indirect fire. The trench is crossed by a wooden bridge, but the entrance hall can be closed off by a retractable bridge and an armour-plated door.
The barracks enclose a cobbled courtyard. Half of it was housed on the ground floor, with men and sub-officers on the first floor, making a total capacity of 388 men, in addition to a cistern and various magazines. The guardhouse at the entrance is attached to the western part of the barracks, where officers were housed. The vaults are built of rough stone. The floors between levels are in brick. The 1911 project allowed 4300 Euros for modernisation works. Three concrete shelters on the ramparts, two machine-gun turrets and observation points were to be established. In 1914, the fort held no more than 10 cannons on the ramparts and 10 in the caponiers.
During the First World War its batteries, armed with ten 12 to 15 cm weapons, fired across the Avron plateau. The quarries were used to shelter troops, provisions and an ambulance. From 1939 to 1940 the fort was occupied by anti-aircraft defence units. There was a fire in the barracks in July 1944. The fort was declassified in 1965 and handed over to the land administration department in 1974. It was registered by ministerial decree on the 16th May 1979 on the Secondary List of Historical Monuments. Since 1984, it has been undergoing restoration.
Fort at Champigny-sur-Marne 140 bis, rue Aristide-Briand 94430 Chennevières-sur-Marne Tel.: 01.45.94.74.74 e-mail: communication@ville-chennevières.fr Bus stop: "Fort de Champigny" Guided tours Saturdays and Sundays 3 pm to 5 pm Free entry

The museum is a collection of souvenirs from a life devoted to medicine, literature and rugby.

While he was studying medicine, in 1899, he became passionate about a sport known as barette, which we now know as rugby.

His love for this sport led to him founding the Pyérénes League and to pen, under the moniker ‘La Sélouze’, a number of columns in the La Dépêche du Midi and the Le Midi Olympique regional newspapers.

He commissioned the Monument to Sport in Toulouse in homage to the victims of war.

Le conflit terminé, il rassemble ses notes dans "Avec la 67ème Division de réserve", grand prix de l'Académie Française.

Auteur de cinquante et un ouvrages, cet humaniste s'est consacré à la neuro-psychiatrie. 

Chef de clinique à Toulouse en 1914, il exerce sur le front en tant que responsable d'une ambulance de campagne.

Son action dans le domaine littéraire le conduit à tenir des rubriques dans le Mercure de France, le Figaro etc.

Il se lie d'amitié avec Paul Léautaud, Paul Valéry, François Mauriac, Francis Carcot, Marie de Saint Exupéry, Camille Mauclair notamment. 

When the war was over, he compiled his notes in the four-volume Avec la 67ème Division de réserve, which won the Grand Prix from the Académie Française.

An author of some 51 works, this humanist dedicated his career to neuropsychiatry.

A clinic manager in Toulouse in 1914, he worked on the front as a manager of a field hospital.

His literary experience saw him write columns in the Mercure de France, Le Figaro and other newspapers.

He forged friendships with writer and theatre critic Paul Léautaud, poet and philosopher Paul Valéry, writer François Mauriac, writer and journalist Francis Carcot, Marie de Saint Exupéry and poet and novelist Camille Mauclair. 

The museum has on display a collection of original documents, manuscripts, photographs, watercolours, sculptures and souvenirs of the Great War, testaments to the life of a man committed to many causes.

Paul Voivenel Museum

09400 Capoulet-et-Junac

Tel: +33 (0)5 61 05 12 57 / 67 79

Email: capoulet.junac@wanadoo.fr

Source: MINDEF/SGA/DMPA

The village of Pozières was the site of the first large-scale operation led by the Australian troops (memorials to the 1^st and 2^nd Australian divisions). The remains of a bunker named the "Gibraltar" can still be seen today. Pozières is also where you can see the monument to tanks decorated with four small tank models.

This village was the obstacle to be overcome to reach first Mouquet Farm and then Thiepval Hill.

This obstacle was largely entrusted to the troops from Australia the majority of which had just returned from Gallipoli. The village was situated on a ridge traversed by a double network of trenches forming the second German line and flanked by two bunkers/observatories overlooking the entire battlefield (Albert side, "Gibraltar" – Bapaume side, "the Windmill").

After arriving on 23 July 1916 and seizing Pozières, the Australian troops, exhausted by constant artillery counter-attacks, were relieved on 5 September by the Canadians at Mouquet Farm. Three of their divisions had passed through the sector of Pozières and suffered losses of more than one-third of the soldiers engaged. The village was completely razed. The name Pozières has such a reputation in the Australian memory that it was bestowed, after the war, on a small village in Queensland (Australia). On 15 September 1916, tanks made their first appearance on a battlefield. Of the 32 British Mark I tanks deployed on the Courcelette-Longueval line, only nine made their targets. Nevertheless, this date marked the start of a more balanced British advancement.

The Battle of Pozières is one of the many Battles of the Somme, an important part of the allied strategy of coordinated attacks: Russia launched the Brusilov Offensive on 4 June and the Italians attacked in Trentini. During the course of 1916, the Front line was situated between the Ancre Valley in Thiepval and Pozières. The British launched the offensive on 1 July 1916; opposite, the German army, forging solidly ahead on the village of Pozières and its windmill, resisted: 60,000 men killed or wounded on the first day of fighting. The Australian forces (1st Division, 22nd Division, 4th Division) took over and succeeded in seizing the position on 23 July. Replaced in September, the Australians lost some 23,000 men.

Somme Tourism Committee

21 rue Ernest-Cauvin 80000 Amiens

Tel: +33 (0) 322 71 22 71

Fax: +33 (0) 322 71 22 69

Email: accueil@somme-tourisme.com

The Somme Tourism Committee is on hand to give you all the information you need on the Somme battlefield and the Circuit du Souvenir visitor's trail: commemorations, getting around, transport, guided tours for individuals or groups, helicopter flights, accommodation and more. The Tourism Committee also publishes a range of brochures on Remembrance Tourism.

La Somme 14-18