Verdun, France

We decided to try to make the most out of our spoiled weekend plans. Though we couldn't go to Munich, we could still do something. We kicked around a few ideas, then settled on Verdun, France. Verdun is about a two hour drive from our house, and it a site of World War I battle fields and trenches. It is something we have talked about doing for a long time, and decided to take the time to do it.

Our first stop was a French cemetery. As we pulled into the parking lot, the sky opened up and poured - absolutely poured - some of the hardest rain I have ever seen. Within a few minutes my shoes were completely soaked. I spent the rest of the day with wet feet, which was slightly miserable. However, I feel like the weather being dark and rainy was appropriate when visiting areas where so many young men died.

By this point we were already soaked through, so we decided to just keep going. We went further up the road to an old fort. The fort was used during World War I, but was built hundreds of years before. You can see many areas around the fort which are pot-marked from mortars. Josh walked around on the inside of the fort, but I chose to stay outside.

After our time at the fort, we walked around and followed some of the old trenches.

The sun finally came out, which offered me some better opportunities to take pictures of the cemetery.

We decided to take a small break and went into the town of Verdun itself. We bought sandwiches at a bakery and then sat along the river. Verdun itself is a quaint, beautiful little town. I feel the memories of World War I are all over the town - they have never forgotten.

There is suppose to be an American cemetery nearby, but we didn't have an address to put into the GPS, and the directions we did have (via Rick Steves) didn't lead us to it. After driving around in vain, we decided to go home.

There are many abandoned trenches, forts, and old battlefields which litter the area around Verdun. If you wanted to, you could spend days exploring the area. Although we started out in miserable weather, it turned out to be a nice day.