Reset search
France
Satellite

France
Arrondissement d’Arras

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Top 10 Travel Destinations Arrondissement d’Arras
Show all
Travelers at this place
    • TravelerVia @ 70
      Day 12

      Bapaume 18 miles

      July 24, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      Suddenly the walk has got harder.

      Started poorly. Still raining when I set off. No breakfast. Couldn’t decide where to stop but came across a large supermarket. Grand. They should have a cafe but no they didn’t. Tried to buy some food but it was all packaged in multiples of what I wanted. Managed eventually to get a pastry, banana and some juice except when I tried to pay it became clear that I should have weighed the banana. So I couldn’t have it. She couldn’t or wouldn’t weigh it for me. Pastry and juice it was then.

      Felt ok when I came to the sign for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission HQ which was about half a mile out of route. Had seen a flyer for it a few days ago so went to visit it. It produces the gravestones for all the different worldwide cemeteries. Sobering stuff.

      By the time I was back on route it was 12.30pm and I had only done a couple of miles of today’s route. Not good. Afternoon really a bit of a plod. Nothing to eat. Rain always discourages stopping for a rest. Underfoot became tough going. Either small stones or mud or a mixture. Feet now sore. Took until 6pm to reach next accommodation, a sort cheap, rundown hotel. Tiny room. At least they did dinner. Not much choice. Adequate. Best bit was what it didn’t have. No polite chat. No dogs. No walking in the rain to find it and no random pictures of mother.

      Lights out by 10pm and hope I feel chirpier tomorrow.      Read more

    • TravelerGrand Tour of Europe - 2023
      Day 63

      WWI Battlefields - The Somme

      July 4, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

      We travelled around the Somme battlefields today where the Australians fought and thousands died. Seeing the terrain and hearing the information from our expert guide, a military historian, really gives an insight into the battles and what went right, what went wrong, and why.

      After our visit to Tyne Cot we saw the areas where the battles of Bullecourt, Pozieres and the Somme were fought, as well as some of the cemeteries.

      A few figures:

      * the Australians lost 10000 men at Bullecourt in two weeks.
      * the British lost 60000 at Poziers, the Australians lost 23000.
      * the Thiepval memorial lists the names of 72000 missing British soldiers with no known grave.

      There are cemeteries literally everywhere and it is all so depressingly sad.      Read more

    • TravelerVia @ 70
      Day 11

      Arras 13 miles

      July 23, 2023 in France ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

      I know that I am sometimes reluctant to leave a cosy tent to head for the loo in the wee small hours but that is nothing compared with the fear of leaving my room during the night knowing that there is a monstrous hound sleeping between my room and the toilet. Just in case I didn’t need reminded it had a 5 minute howling at the moon episode at about midnight. Had me wide awake enough to remember something I had promised to do earlier. Hadn’t even managed to write the day’s report as I was mentally knackered after the dinner trauma. Lights out about 9pm.

      A dreich start to the day. Couldn’t wait to get going to escape that slavering Brutus. Stopped at a bus shelter to write yesterday’s diary. Rain pretty much stopped by the time I got going again.

      As usual I was bemused by the French habit of using the pavement for parking their cars. Not much thought given to pedestrians.

      Staying tonight in a Catholic hostel which can house hundreds, mostly in dormitories but luckily also small rooms. Think I might be the only guest tonight. No breakfast available. It started pouring down soon after I arrived at about 2.30pm and just didn’t let up. By 7pm when I thought I might be able to find a restaurant open it was still chucking it down. Big decision to make. Given that it would be about a mile in torrential rain to get anywhere and I only have emergency lightweight waterproofs and no waterproof footwear was I that hungry? I have been carrying an emergency bar of tablet from home but I hadn’t eaten since a very brief and inadequate breakfast. Greed got the better of me and I headed out. Found an Indian restaurant which was empty but seemed ok to have me drip everywhere. Lovely meal sitting alone. No dogs. No polite conversation except with the waiter who insisted on showing me lots of photos of his mother. Maybe he thought I needed a companion. No wonder I don’t understand social interactions.      Read more

    • TravelerVia Francigena
      Day 21

      Stage 12: Ablain Saint-Nazaire to Arras

      May 1, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

      So…… somehow I blew out my knee yesterday, luckily only about 30 minutes before arriving in Ablain Saint-Nazaire. After much thought I reluctantly decided to rest my knee for a day or two. My host drove me back to the cemetery to see the Ring of Remembrance, and then his wife drove me to Arras. Tomorrow another bus, to Bapaume.

      Today is 1 May so most businesses are closed. There was a giant anti-Macron market in one square and a loud concert in the other. Another demonstration, which I missed. Nothing interesting. I did happen upon a nice Mass at the church of Saint Jean-Baptiste, with singing nuns from Lens and a priest from Africa.

      The first photos are from the gîte where I stayed.

      The cemetery and memorial are wrenching. The cemetery holds 45,000 graves from one battle. The town was on the front line for almost 4 years, and was completely razed. In all, in this small region, almost 600,000 soldiers died. Their names are inscribed in the Ring. Lots of Smyths listed.      Read more

    • TravelerRWC Cup France 2023
      Day 34

      Arras - Western Front Battlefields

      October 10, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      We spent two days with Phil Hora - an Australian expat who lives in Arras - touring the western Front battlefield sites. Phil specialises in Australian tours and I thoroughly recommend him (Sacred Ground tours). I sent him information on my great uncle George who died here and he had located the actual paddocks that he was fighting in when he was killed. It was quite moving to stand in that paddock all this time later and reflect on those events. Later we visited his grave in one of the 2925 Commonwealth War Graves in this region! The following day he tracked down - with info from Helen - areas Jane’s grandfather worked as a field hospital surgeon.
      The loss of life is staggering when you consider that in the four years of stalemate there were major battles, resulting in hundreds of thousands of causalities on both sides, that resulted in maybe 2 to 4 kms of territory gained - sometime a couple of 100 metres! At the battle of Pozieres 6800 Australian men died in 7 weeks! By the end of the war it is estimated 15 to 22 million soldiers from all sides died.
      The respect from the French and Belgium people is amazing and to this day they honour the Australian troops who fought here ( as well as the other nations) by donating their land and their time for cemeteries, memorials and museums.
      The British High Command made disastrous after disastrous decisions in the first three years and I’m surprised we won! The tide turned when the Aussi, Kiwi and Canadian battalions were united under their own generals who had innovative battle plans the bore results and decreased deaths. In our case General John Monash - a civil engineer - who was the only person knighted on the battlefield during the war after his stunning victories in 1918. The new Monash centre at Villers-Brettenoux is a superb information museum opened in 2017 - the quality of all the museums is very high. All up a very sobering but enlightening experience.      Read more

    • TravelerVia @ 70
      Day 10

      Ablain-Saint-Nazaire 17 miles

      July 22, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      Usual start to the day although one of the poorer breakfasts so far. Fine walking though. In the morning I came upon some sort of mini Centre Parks affair with lots of folk eating outside. Could have joined them but just seemed too early in the fairly long day to have a break. Kept going as there was a boulangerie shown later on. Sound thinking except it was shut.

      Late on I came to the vast cemetery at Notre-Dame de Lorette which has the remains of 40,000 French soldiers. That was sobering enough as was the adjoining museum but what was worse was the “Ring of Memory” nearby which has the names of 580,000 soldiers of all nationalities killed in the region between 1914 and 1918. Quite a few Kilpatricks so I assume there must have been a Scottish regiment involved. A number is just a number but when you see all the names written down it hits a little harder.

      Anyway it meant I was later arriving at the next accommodation which was useful as I had been told not to arrive before 5.30pm. This was a strange affair, unlike anything I have stayed in elsewhere but not uncommon on the Via. This was a new house with a straightforward middle-aged, middle-class couple who welcome pilgrims as guests into their house, supplying evening meal and breakfast. I couldn’t make out why. They did charge 60€ but I don’t think it was about the money. Possibly just interested in meeting folk. It was on their own terms. Arrive after 5.30pm, only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, must be booked in advance, rucksack had to be left in the garage, no shoes inside the house etc. All very understandable. The trouble for me came with the meals. As most of you know my social skills are practically non-existent. This has only been heightened by 10 days of virtually hermit levels of communication. When in company I much prefer sitting quietly and listening rather than chipping in. My family are more than capable of filling in any gaps admirably. Additionally I struggle with eating noises, apart from my own, naturally, so eating with some folk can sometimes be deeply unpleasant. And as a final blow they had a large dog that found the presence of someone new to sniff etc all too inviting. The food, although otherwise excellent was very dry. Another problem of mine. “Where’s the sauce?” springs to mind. Painfully aware that all these problems were in my head. What a nutter sometimes.      Read more

    • Winter '23
      Day 2

      First night in France!

      December 1, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 0 °C

      First night in the EU! We’ve parked up for the night, warmed up the van and had our dinner. Feels good to finally be on the trip we’ve been planning for 6 months!
      Shame it’s so cold outside but hopefully we won’t be feeling it tonight!Read more

    • TravelerVia @ 70
      Day 9

      Bruay-la-Buissiere 12 miles

      July 21, 2023 in France ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      As usual, my life is all about eating and sleeping. Last night the eating was adequate but the sleep wasn’t. Ridiculous really. All seemed good - nice bed, comfortable temperature, little external noise. The only problem was a wee insect that persistently did a flypast of my ear just when I was nearly asleep. Now I am no keener than the next man on being bitten so this would send me into a frenzy of light on, out of bed, armed to the teeth with a towel and murderous intent to prevent said insect continuing its acrobatics. Failed time and again. Even lured it into the confines of the bathroom, shutting the door behind so it couldn’t escape my flailing towel. Thought I had scored a direct hit, no sign of it, back to bed, light out, off to sleep.

      But no, the little bugger, or its chum (not easy to tell one from another) was still there. Nothing for it but stick a leg out of the covers, leaving it to its fate in the hope that the blighter would just silently gorge on all that flesh and leave my ear alone. I have no idea if insects have a favourite part of a carcass to gnaw at, similar to a human choosing leg or breast from the Xmas turkey, but this one didn’t seem too fussy and peace reigned. As soon as I reconciled myself to being eaten alive I managed to nod off.

      After an OK breakfast I departed although not before madam had taken a photo as she apparently does of all pilgrims.

      Walk uneventful although becoming more built up in places.

      Arrived before 3pm with high hopes for dinner as the hotel had a restaurant. Turned out that Friday is the day off for the restaurant. Wandered out about 4pm when the tummy started rumbling. Looked like there were some eateries about half a mile to the east or about a mile to the west. Headed east. Spent ages wandering about some sort of spread out shopping centre. Lots of food outlets but only MacDonalds was showing any signs of life and I wasn’t that desperate. After an hour and a half I had given up and headed west. Got quite excited when I came to a Taj Mahal until I read the note on the door which said it was on holiday until mid-August. Never mind there was a Chinese restaurant opposite. Except it didn’t open for another hour. Kept walking. Eventually came upon a small pizza outlet. He seemed bemused that I might want to order a pizza just after 6pm. Nevertheless within half an hour when the rest of the staff arrived I had my pizza.

      Hard going. Must have walked about 4 extra miles just trying to get my tea.      Read more

    • TravelerNormandie et Bretagne, on y va
      Day 1

      490 kilometer onderweg

      May 21, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      En de tweede grens is ook al gepasseerd! We zijn net voorbij Lille en eten een broodje langs de snelweg. Het is best druk op de weg.
      Ze hebben een supersonische koffie-en theeautomaat. Dat hebben wij in Appingedam niet…Read more

      See translation
    • TravelerVia Francigena
      1
      Day 19

      Stage 10: Amettes to Bruay-la-Buissière

      April 29, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

      Lots of forest paths and a good number of cultivated and uncultivated fields. A couple more small, dead animals (unphotographed). A road between fields with lots of small potatoes, even though the fields were wheat. Weird.
      I managed to slightly twist, or maybe just fatigue, my ankle, so I added an hour to my day hunting down a pharmacy.
      Bruay-la-Buissière is an ugly former mining town.      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Arrondissement d’Arras, Arrondissement d'Arras

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android

    • 2024© FindPenguins
    • Home
    • About us
    • Blog
    • Group Tracking
    • Press
    • Terms
    • Privacy Policy & Cookies
    • Support
    • Legal notice
    • English