Touring Belgium / Northern France

[maniacalmonkey]

Hi all,

I've starting watching "Band of Brothers" with my dad and got him hooked on it too - so much in fact, that the old warrior spirit in him has awakened. We intend to do a tour of three or four days or so somewhere in December of some famous battlegrounds in the region of Belgium and Northern France. We'll be leaving from northern Holland (where we live), Normandy and Bastogne are on the wishlist, but we'd like to see some other sites as well. So, looking for the largest deposit of military knowledge I could find, I naturally ended up here

Tips? Suggestions? Routes? Any input is more than welcome!


Thanks,


--Monkey

[scimitar]

Some years ago, receiving at home a French friend and his family, we made the following travel: Ligny (there is a nice little museum, "le Musée du Coupe-Chou - "de bloemkool hakker", in reference of the officer's sabre), then the Quatre Bras, going to Waterloo with a stop at the Ferme Blanche (where Napoleon's slept the nice preceding the battle). After visiting the battleground, we visited also the Wellington's museum at Waterloo.

[rbrunsman]

Last month I went to France and saw a nice tank museum in Saumur. Musee des Blindes Saumur is south of the Normandy Beaches. IIRC, they have the worlds largest collection of functioning tanks from WWI to Modern Era. They also claim to have the world's only function KingTiger. It's pretty nice for getting a sense of the size of the AFVs of the time. Example: The Marder is smaller than you could possibly imagine. The Nebelweffer is tiny too.

[Belisarius]

There's a nice idea.

There's no Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes or Northern Germans around that's interested to take a tour of the battlefields of France & Benelux this summer? :p I'd love to visit Normandie and the rest of the west theatre.

For those of you that haven't seen it: "Band of brothers" is the best WWII dramatization there is to date. It's all that "Saving Private Ryan" should have been, and no sentimentalism. It's a must see. Really.

btw, Manicalmonkey, the area around Carentan, France and Foy, Belgium should prove interesting if you're goin in the footsteps of the 506 PIR...

[scimitar]

Originally posted by rbrunsman
Last month I went to France and saw a nice tank museum in Saumur. Musee des Blindes Saumur is south of the Normandy Beaches. IIRC, they have the worlds largest collection of functioning tanks from WWI to Modern Era. They also claim to have the world's only function KingTiger. It's pretty nice for getting a sense of the size of the AFVs of the time. Example: The Marder is smaller than you could possibly imagine. The Nebelweffer is tiny too.

The Brussels Army Museum has also a nice collection of tanks, from WWI ones to Leopard 1A1. It's lacated at the Cinquantenaire; and includes the Air Museum. The last one owns some rare planes like some WWI fighters, but also Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquito, FAirey Battle and more modern planes (like an F-16A, a Mig-23, a Mil-24 Hind...

[geg_thomas]

Band Of Brothers has just started here, and for me its a religion to sit, watch (and tape it) every Monday night at 9:30.

maniacalmonkey, thats a good idea, i hope you have a good time and maybe get some photos to post on this forum

[maniacalmonkey]

I'll be sure to provide you guys with a nice AAR once we get back