The best traffic-free bike rides around Manin

Mont César rises to a height of 138 meters on the left bank of the Thérain River, near the hamlet of Froidmont, in the municipality of Bailleul-sur-Thérain, in the Oise department. The hill, which overlooks the valley and surrounding marshes, has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and was likely a Gallo-Roman oppidum on an ancient, fortified Gallic camp. Archaeological excavations carried out since the 18th century have unearthed numerous objects and remains of fortifications. During excavations conducted in 1878 by Isidore Berton, Gallic coins and various objects from the Roman period were discovered. Want to know more? Click through to the source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_C%C3%A9sar

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.

Small chapel accessible from Saulty, leads to the national

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.

I went there late one evening, a calm that does you good, a great panorama night and day

Such places are still very important today as memorials to the countless war dead. "Now, Lord, you let your servant depart in peace, as you have said..." says the so-called "Hymn of Simeon" (Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2, Verse 29). However, the many people buried here did not depart in peace, but became victims of war and an inhuman tyranny. The most important and at the same time everlasting function of the military or honorary cemeteries or war graves is therefore to keep the memory of this suffering alive and - every generation anew (!) - to remind them of the need to maintain peace in the long term.

beautiful journey, beautiful scenery