The best MTB trails around Haute-Avesnes

Very beautiful ruin

cool

The ruins of the old church of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire are an impressive and symbolic remnant of the First World War. This church, built in the 16th century in flamboyant Gothic style by Jacques Le Caron, was heavily damaged during the fighting in 1915. The ruins have been preserved as a monument to commemorate the horrors of war.

The Maroeuil Marsh natural area offers a pleasant walk along the Scarpe River, with interesting flora and fauna. The signposting is illustrated by the small Vertigo de Des Moulins snail, which you can try to spot on the marsh plants.

A remarkable story about the ruins concerns the decision not to rebuild the church after the war. Although the church had been classified as a historical monument in 1908, the Commission for Historical Monuments decided that the ruins should remain as a testimony to the German destruction. Ironically, it was the French guns that had destroyed the church, but the ruins became a symbol of the war and the reconstruction.

The Vimy Memorial is the most prestigious Canadian monument in Europe. It is located on the very site of the 1917 fighting near Vimy in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. Erected on the highest point of the hill, Hill 145, the objective of the operations that began on April 9, 1917, it overlooks the Douai Plain. In 1921, architect and sculptor Walter S. Allward (1875-1955) won the competition from the Canadian Battlefield Memorials Commission. The significance of the battles at the site and the favorable location at the top of the hill allowed Vimy to receive the most prestigious work.

Beware, beginners without an electric bike... big climbs... it's a roller coaster!!! Otherwise, the route to Olhain is fantastic!!!

Remains of a fortified mill during the First World War, a testament to the fraternization of the French. It was rediscovered in 2015. The Red Mill On this hill, which marks the boundary between the villages of Thélus and Neuville-Saint-Vaast, a windmill had stood since the Middle Ages. It produced flour, oil, and also woad, a blue dye used in Arras tapestries. It was rebuilt in 1678 in red brick, which later gave it the nickname "The Red Mill," in contrast to another mill in Thélus built of white stone and called the White Mill. The Mill Trench In October 1914, the Germans captured the hills outside Arras. The Moulin Rouge was quickly destroyed, but the Germans fortified the ruins to create an observation post facing the trenches of the Labyrinth sector, located 1,500 meters from here toward Arras. In May and September 1915, the French recaptured ground from the Germans during the Battles of Artois, and this observation post found itself on the French front line. It was then repurposed to observe the German lines toward Thélus. It then served as a landmark and gave its name to the "Mill Trench" that led to it. Fraternizations It was here that on December 10, 1915, Louis Barthas, a corporal in the 280th Infantry Regiment of the French Army, participated in a moment of fraternization between German and French soldiers emerging from their flooded trenches. The account he gave of them in his War Diaries contributed to their recognition, leading to the creation of the Fraternization Monument, located in Neuville-Saint-Vaast, 2 km away. Archaeology In 2015, archaeological excavations uncovered the foundations of the mill and its outbuildings, a concrete observation post, and traces of a trench. These remains are displayed in this garden, which evokes the trenches that faced each other. During the development of the adjacent Parc d'activité des Meuniers, more than 30 soldiers' bodies were found: French, German, and Canadian. Six soldiers were identified; they came from Périgueux, Limoges, Saintes, and Béthune. Gaston Basset, a soldier in the 50th Infantry Regiment, died on September 27, 1915, during the attack on Thélus. His body was found in 2012 at the location indicated by a comrade in a letter addressed to his widow.