Next year is the centenary of the start of the first world war. The last three combat veterans in the UK died in 2009. The world's last service member, Florence Green of Norfolk, died in 2012, aged 110. Yet their fallen comrades will never be forgotten. The Nord-Pas-de-Calais region is the place to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Make Arras your base. It was an important medieval city whose name was synonymous with tapestries (Claudius was killed behind the arras in Hamlet), and was levelled by German shelling during the first world war. Its 16th-century town hall and clock tower were reduced to rubble, two-thirds of the buildings lining the town square demolished. Yet the historic centre was rebuilt after the war, and the belfry is now a Unesco world heritage site. A lift (plus 40 steps) transports visitors to the top for a panoramic view over the city.
Underground is where Arras's chief contribution to the war was made. The old chalk quarries were turned into a vast network of tunnels burrowing towards enemy lines in which 24,000 Allied soldiers waited for eight days, before surging out on 9 April 1917 to take the German forces by surprise.
At Wellington Quarry, reopened in 2008 as a museum, take a lift 22 metres (70ft) below ground to tour 350 metres of tunnels. Afterwards, visit the Edwin Lutyens-designed Faubourg d'Amiens cemetery and memorial to the west of town, commemorating the nearly 37,300 who died or were lost in action during the Battle of Arras. The names of Canadian and Australian soldiers are inscribed on memorials in nearby Vimy and in Villers-Bretonneux, in the département of Somme.
Vimy Ridge was the scene of a fierce operation in the battle of Arras, and one of the key confrontations of the war for Canada's troops. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, situated on the ridge, is the largest of Canada's war memorials. It was restored in 2007, and rededicated by Queen Elizabeth II.
From Arras follow the remembrance trail south and south-east to Cambrai, where, in November 1917, the British deployed tanks in significant numbers for the first time.
Other key sites in the area include Fromelles and Bullencourt, both of which were the scenes of significant battles for the Australian army, which incurred heavy losses. The scale of destruction and loss can still be felt in the cemetery of Notre Dame de Lorette, France's largest military cemetery which occupies the site that was the focal point of the three battles of Arras. The remains of over 40,000 French soldiers are interred here, from the first world war and subsequent conflicts.
To find out more about this destination, visit gotofrancenow.com/northern-france-nord-pas-de-calais
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