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Flanders Battlefields Tour from Lille

14th February 2008

Visits to the scenes of some of the most important battles of World War I are available from Lille between February 16th and December 13th.

Lille is easily reached from the UK by rail and sits close to the Belgian city of Ypres, which makes it the perfect starting point for a tour of many key areas of historical interest from the Great War.

Once in the Flanders region, an English-speaking guide will be on hand to provide background knowledge on the various stages of the tour. The First and Second Battles of Ypres and the Ypres Salient were all fought between the German and Allied forces.

Participants in the tour will be taken to some of the battlefields in Messines as well various memorial sites. Four cemeteries will be visited, including Tyne Cot, which is the largest in the Commonwealth, and Essex Farm, where John McCrae wrote his poem In Flanders Fields.

The tour also stops in the centre of Ypres. During the war, the city was ravaged by the conflict and had to be demolished. However, many of the historical buildings - some of which date back to the middle ages - have since been restored.

Head to Lille and embark on a tour of remembrance.

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