Iteranti
Commonwealth war graves in front of the colonnaded Arras Memorial, including the headstone of Private S. Meltzer of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment marked with a Star of David.

Amettes to Arras (day 5)

Ridden · Jamie Brammer

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Just like back home

So last night I stayed at a farm where the farmer was a champion pigeon racer. Today cycling through mining areas: slag heaps and lots of hilly terraced housing. I could have been in East Lancs or Yaarkshire.

Mont St Eloi

I'd taken quite a detour from the official route for much of the day and I can't really remember why. But anyhow the route I took just has stunning views of this old ruin from miles away and as you get closer you just realise you have to go up there despite the 11% climb (its fortunately not very long).

This is yet another "must see" stop on the Via Francigena as the views are amazing and you're now travelling through many of the battlefields of World War I.

World War I

There's almost no old buildings in Northern France which I felt was jarring, especially after the quaint old vibes of Canterbury and the villages on the way to Dover. But this area has been the site of war for hundred's if not thousands of years. Especially with the increasingly mechanised warfare in the 19th and 20th centuries, there's just very little left standing. So people have had to rebuild their homes and the fabric of society from scratch after each war.

But it was clear that World War I had the biggest impact on the area as the graveyards of thousands upon thousands of soldiers demonstrate. Some moments for quiet reflection.

Arras

Arras is a great town to visit for a day or two, outdoor squares, museums and lots of World War I history.

Overnight: Arras, Najeti Hôtel de L'univers

Really nice food. Ok but perhaps slightly small room. Wasn't the easiest place to store a bike. Would, however, return again.

  • A leaf-strewn dirt path curving through dappled woodland, with the rider's handlebar bag and a GPS unit visible at the bottom of the frame.
  • A narrow sunken path hemmed in by ivy-covered banks, arching trees forming a tunnel overhead with a splash of orange trail marker on the ground.
    Definitely some "Middle Earth" vibes today
  • Ripe golden wheat in the foreground giving way to a green strip of crop and a harvested field dotted with round straw bales under a hazy sky.
  • A quiet residential street in a French village lined with terraced brick houses and parked hatchbacks bearing French number plates.
    Terraced housing that could have been in the North of England
  • A tall brick church spire with pointed lancet windows and a rose window, part of the tower under scaffolding and sheeting during restoration work.
  • A waymarker post reading 'GR 145 - Via Francigena' pointing across a stubble field scattered with round straw bales, a spoil heap from a former coal mine rising in the distance.
  • A wooded slag heap from the former coalfield rising above a hazy field of tall grass and crops near the Via Francigena route.
  • A terraced brick street named Rue Massenet in a former mining town, with cars parked along the kerb beneath a row of gabled houses.
  • A ruined brick church with a soaring spire and empty tracery windows, its roof gone, standing beside mature trees under a clear sky.
    The fallen church at Mont St Eloi, visible from miles around
  • The ruined arches and stonework of a bombed church, with a laden touring bicycle parked in the grass beside a row of bikes chained to a rack.
  • An orange loaded touring bike leaning against an information post on a grassy hilltop overlooking a village with a red-brick church tower and spire.
  • The ruined twin towers of a gutted stone church standing roofless against a cloudy sky, with parked cars and a house visible below.
  • Rows of white Commonwealth war graves set among rose bushes, with a stone Cross of Sacrifice standing beyond the headstones under shading trees.
  • Rows of pale wooden crosses in a French military cemetery, with a small stone memorial shelter visible among the trees behind.
  • A tall grey industrial mill building labelled 'Minoterie Sainte Bertille' with a clock beneath its gable, rising above a hedgerow beside a country lane.
  • A grassy footpath running alongside a slow, weed-flecked river between overhanging willows and poplars, with a bare dead tree standing out against the trees behind.
  • Arras's Place des Héros, its ornate gabled Flemish townhouses lining a cobbled square beside the belfry of the town hall, hung with French tricolour flags.
  • A long terrace of restored red-brick barracks buildings with white dormer windows, overlooking a hedged garden path in Arras.
  • A long brick citadel building beside a tree-lined moat reflecting the sky, part of Arras's star-shaped fortifications.
  • A cluster of red poppies wedged into the base of the Arras Memorial's stone panels, which are carved with long columns of soldiers' names.
  • Commonwealth war graves in front of the colonnaded Arras Memorial, including the headstone of Private S. Meltzer of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment marked with a Star of David.
  • Rows of white headstones in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery leading to the colonnaded Arras Memorial, poplar trees lining the boundary beyond.
  • A view along the curved colonnade of the Arras Memorial, its arches framing a stone memorial altar with a wreath, headstones lined up in the foreground.
  • A cobbled avenue between symmetrical brick pavilions leading to the parade ground of the Citadelle d'Arras, with two cyclists crossing in the distance.
  • The grassy moat and brick ramparts of the Citadelle d'Arras, with a red-brick building perched on top of the fortified wall.
  • The stone gatehouse entrance to the Citadelle d'Arras across a cobbled bridge, with 'LE TOUR...A LA FOLIE' lettered in yellow along the rampart wall beside it.
  • Children and adults gathered under shade trees in a school playground in Arras, with a modern school building behind them.
  • The rough-hewn stone walls of an underground chalk tunnel beneath Arras, lit yellow-green by artificial lighting.
  • A vaulted underground passage cut through chalk bedrock, leading to a small brick-lined chamber, part of the wartime tunnels beneath Arras.
    WW1 tunnels under Arras
  • A framed First World War map titled 'Subway Tunnels and Mining System', showing the network of passages excavated beneath Arras and the front line trenches.
  • A bird's-eye view down onto Arras's Place des Héros from the belfry, looking past carved stone gargoyles to the gabled townhouses and café terraces below.
  • A wide view over Arras's rooftops from the belfry, gabled townhouses in the foreground giving way to tower blocks and open farmland on the horizon.
  • Arras's rooftops and a long classical barracks building seen from the belfry, with twin tower blocks and open countryside in the distance.
  • Aerial view over a French town's rooftops from a bell tower, with gabled brick and stone buildings, a red-umbrella café terrace and a car park in the foreground, and two tall tower blocks rising above the wider cityscape under a clear blue sky.
  • A large cobbled square lined on both sides by tall, gabled townhouses with ground-floor arcades, seen from high in a belfry with a weathered stone corner pinnacle in the foreground and a few people and potted palms scattered across the open flagstones below.
    All was destroyed in the war and subsequently rebuilt
  • A gilt-framed painting of an army crossing a mountain pass, soldiers, cannon and pack horses winding along a rocky track beneath towering peaks.
  • A gallery display of a painted copy of Napoleon crossing the Alps on a rearing white horse, wrapped in a red cloak, with 'BONAPARTE' inscribed on the rock below.
    One of the 5 original "Napoleon Crossing the Alps"