Family Holidays in France: Somme Battlesites

When friends invited us to spend February half-term with them at their old farmhouse in northern France, we jumped at the chance.  My six-year-old son Joe would get to explore new territory and play football with 10-year-old Thomas, while I could indulge in good food and wine and enjoy some adult conversation around a roaring log fire. What could be better? Well, an unexpectedly educational and moving visit to some of the First World War memorial sites made it all the more special.

We were based in Pas-de-Calais, but the entire area is rich in battlefield history; the  sites mentioned below are just over the border in the Picardie region.

We set off for the Somme on a very cold and windy day. The boys’ interest, awakened by talk of soldiers and bomb craters, was soon rewarded when a couple of kilometres north-east of Albert we stopped to take in the Lochnagar Crater. This enormous hole in the ground – 90m across by 30m deep - was created by an underground mine set off beneath the German lines in the minutes before the Allied attack on July 1st 1916.

Next stop was the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in Auchonvillers, 13km north of Albert, where a small visitors’ centre crammed with archive material and poignant letters illustrates the story of the Newfoundland regiment. A very friendly Canadian guide was on hand to answer any questions and direct us to the now grassed-over Allied and German trenches (there are guided visits in English May –Nov). We ambled along the signposted zigzag trail recreating the soldiers’ route across ‘No Man’s Land’ during the attack. This was quite a history lesson, and we realised we had been lucky to have the place to ourselves when, as we left, a coach full of rather lively schoolchildren arrived.

Our last stop was Albert, a little town 30km northeast of Amiens, the epicentre of Somme battlefield tourism. We headed straight for the Somme Trench Museum, and had an amazing time there. The museum is made up of 250m tunnels that were once air-raid shelters running under the town. Again, a staggering amount of artefacts, film and a series of tableaux illustrating Allied and German life in the trenches fascinated us all.  You could easily spend all day in here, if you weren’t with children in frequent need of refreshments and/or the toilet! 

As you leave the museum, the last tunnel recreates a trench complete with noise and flashing lights that really brings the wartime experience to life. Once you’ve surfaced into the relative calm of the museum shop, you can buy an assortment of war souvenirs, from shell-cases to bayonets. Needless to say, Joe’s request to buy a deactivated gun was swiftly turned down in favour of an ice cream!

See Take the Family's family destination guide to Normandy.

See Take the Family's family destination guide to Paris.