need an interesting halfway stop...
 

Arriving in Dusselsorf and beginning the trek to Normandy...can someone suggest a halfway spot? We are a family of four, 2 boys 14 and 10, and joining us are my parents. We are all big war history buffs and bascially that is the point of this trip. We are actually picking up my parents in Dusseldorf, so we will have already been in the area for four days doing the history tour. Wanted to visit Amiens, would that be a push from Dusseldorf?

Thanks for the advice,
Texas girl

Hi 1txgrl. We have always enjoyed Lille in Northern France.Do you plan to spend a couple of days or just an overnight? There is a wonderful Art-Deco gallery at Roubaix (just outside Lille).It used to be a municipal swimming pool and is one of the most amazing galleries that I have ever visited.It's called La Piscine(Musee D'Art et D'Industrie). Hope you have a great trip, Shirley

Amiens is a grey industrial city. IMO you can do better.

The reason for Amiens is the Battle of the Somme river. So I probably should have said the area of Amiens. Thanks for the Lille advice, looking into to that.

Texas girl

I'm not sure if it would be considered "half-way" - maybe more of a detour, but if you're interested in history (especially war history), Reims is very interesting. It is where the Germans signed the surrender treaty in WWII. The war room has been preserved as a museum.

Reims also: (a) is one of the champagne capitals of France, and you can take some very entertaining and informative tours of the larger champagne houses - fun for kids as well as adults (even if the kids don't get to taste the champagne); and (b) has a number of very interesting Art Deco buildings, because it was badly damaged in WWI and there was a lot of rebuilding between the wars. Its cathedral, which was not the most inspiring I've seen, does have some beautiful stained glass windows, including windows designed by the painter Marc Chagall.

We stayed at a nice Best Western (Hotel de la Paix, I think) last summer.

I also learned recently, if you are interested, that there are miles and miles of Roman-excavated caves under Reims which are now used by wineries for storage among other things. Apparently they are literally roads down there.