Reims-Verdun
 

I want to visit WW I sites near Verdun and would like to stay is Reims. Is this possible? Could I rent a car and drive for the day? Thanks for any help.

Do you mean that you would rent the car in Reims and drive from there? Not a problem. The A4 autoroute is extremely efficient.

Of course it's possible. There are car rentals in Reims and the drive is less than 90 minutes if you use toll road A4. It's 3 hours if you avoid all toll roads.

Thanks for the response. Yes, I thought I'd rent a car for the day if I can cover the significant sites in a day. I have read that it is not as necessary to see the town of Verdun as the battlefields out of town? Do you agree?

I have not been, but as with any battlefield site, you never "have" to go into the nearby town. However, since it's it's only a few miles, you may as well, if only to eat lunch somewhere.

rmfish, I rented a car in Reims and visited the Great War battlefields at Verdun, although I stayed in the area for several days. It could certainly be done in a day, but I think you would have to make careful choices about what to see. It would be difficult, for example, to do justice to both the French/German battlesites of 1915 and the American/German sites of 1918, even though they are close to each other.

And yes, if you skip anything, skip the city of Verdun itself.

You might find my trip report helpful:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ern-france.cfm

There is nothing of interest in the city of Verdun. The battle sites are at least 10km and more away from town.

I thank all of you. Anselm, I read both of your reports and found them inspiring. I planned to stay in Reims for a couple of days and then drive over and stay somewhere in the Flanders area or on the Somme for a couple of days. I thought I might stay in Ieper and then somewhere south of there. Does that make sense?

I think it would work. As discussed above, you could make a day trip from Reims to the Verdun battlefields. When you've wrapped up your stay in Reims, you could drive to Ieper in 2.5 to 3 hours (I'm using Google maps to get the driving time). You could spend a day in that area and then drive south to the Somme.

Alternatively, you could drive from Reims to the Somme, spend a day in that area, and then finish up around Ieper; it really depends on where you want to return your rented car. Lille or Amiens come to mind as possible drop-off points for the rental.

There are quite a few possibilities for accommodation in the Ieper and Albert area. We mentioned a couple in our trip report, and we got quite a few other suggestions when we asked about it in the spring of 2008:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...st-quentin.cfm

I hope this goes well for you. It's an experience you will never forget.

Thanks for the kind help.