During World War One, something like a quarter of a million men perished at the battle of Verdun. It was an important battleground because that area is the only defendable high ground between the Germany and the plains of Champagne.
On a foggy, drizzly, day, depressing and evocative of war at the same time, we drove up a long slope to find a tangle of trenches, forts, graves and memorials. It was virtually empty...just a handful of tourists, including a squad of German soldiers.
A friend of a friend described a recent visit to Verdun in a waythat captured perfectly our impressions: "The weather was cold, grey, foggy, drizzly, windy...perfectly fitting for the most depressing place on earth."
The Ossuary, the building in the distance, contains the remains of more than 100,000 unidentified soldiers who fought here.
The Ghost Army was here over Christmas of 1944, after withdrawing from Luxembourg because of the Battle of the Bulge.
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