Verdun France

Friday we stayed at home and rested, so here is the recap for yesterday.
As much as I like Germany, I really love France. I am so glad my daughter lives just an hour's drive from the border. The things about France that I really like are: The French language flows when spoken, German is so abrupt. Germany is more conforming, whereas France more aloof. France has more curves, Germany is more square. German girls are pretty, French women are beautiful. My wife is very French. That should keep me out of trouble.
Another thing I really love about France is the architecture and monuments. Thanksgiving day we went to Verdun, which has been the sight for many a battle since the middle ages. Outside of the city, there are many monuments and cemetaries. One place is the Montfaucon American Monument which was the sight of a 47 day fight during WW1. The ruins of the church are all that is left of the entire village.
The monument itself is 20 feet tall and can be seen from miles away. There are steps inside the monument when it is open and you can walk to the observation tower. It was closed when we went.

From there we went to the 130 acre Meuse-Argonne American Cemetary that has over 14,000 war dead buried or entombed. One cannot help but pause in quiet recollection when seeing the perfectly lined rows crosses and Star of Davids. That is where I took yesterdays photo.
Driving to the Meuse-Argonne we ended up driving by a little battlefield monument. It is a sixteen feet tall grim reaper holding a staff with the French words "They shall not pass." I had to look it up to understand the significance of the words. They were spoken by French General Robert Nivelle when addressing the troops during the Battle of Verdun, one of the deadliest and most devastating battles in war history.

The city of Verdun lies twenty miles west of the cemetery. The city doesn't have a lot to offer as far as tourist attractions go, it does have the Porte Chaussee which is the gateway to the city built in 1380.

There are little monuments and statuary all over the city, and high atop one of the hills over looking the city is the renaissance Cathedrale Notre-Dame du Verdun. The city has that grit and polish look to it, where one building is old and run down and the one next to it is well kept. The Cathedral is the same way, the inside is slick and polished while the outside is old and gritty. These cathedrals are open all of the time, and still hold mass on a regular basis. On Sundays a mix of tourists and church goers often collide. This is one of the back doors to the church, typical of the style of these old cathedrals. The church was consecrated in 1147.

The trip home was a bit flustering, we could not get on the autostrasse because of what we figured was an accident. We had to drive twenty miles to the town of Ettine, and go back south to the highway. So it took nearly three hours to get back.