From Etaples to Ors, discover the journey of the First World War soldier and poet and explore the hidden histories of its emotive war cemeteries and memorials
You’ve stared into the dead eyes in old photographs, you’ve stood in silent tribute at the war memorial, you’ve read Birdsong and you've heard the shocking statistics of the conflict: 1,119,264 Commonwealth war dead. Yet whatever you know about the life of a WW1 soldier, nothing can prepare you for the wave of emotion you experience visiting the Northern France battlefields themselves. It’s an emotional impact like no other, shedding a light not only on the vast numbers of WW1 soldiers who died, but on the heart of the matter… the personal stories unearthed.
And it’s thanks to WW1 icons like Wilfred Owen, transposing the horrors of war to poetry, that we know something of the life of a WW1 soldier, his Dulce et Decorum Est and other poems stirring reflection in classrooms, generation after generation.
On the coast of Northern France, discover the important role that Etaples played in WW1 history
In January 1917, Wilfred’s first steps onto Northern France soil were in Etaples, near Le Touquet - now under an hour’s drive from Calais. The fishing village formerly so picturesque it had spawned an art colony became somewhere quite different in wartime…
Sufficiently far from the Western Front but with access to the railway network, Etaples was the ideal strategic position for a vast allied infantry and hospital base, designed to render its soldiers fit for battle. Wilfred’s words encapsulate its brutality – “… a dreadful encampment… a kind of paddock where the beasts are kept a few days before the shambles”. Indeed the horror of conditions came to a crescendo in September 1917 in the form of riots thought to be the British Army’s biggest mutiny of the day.
Pay tribute to the soldiers of WW1 at Etaples Military Cemetery
Not that you would know it now. Right on the site is Etaples Military Cemetery, the epitome of peace and France's largest Commonwealth War Graves cemetery.
And it’s a combined effect that reduces visitors to tears: the first sight of the far-reaching, perfectly-aligned, white headstones, the deafening silence, the emotive inscriptions: ‘If my love could have saved you, you would not have died my beloved son’.
Wilfred Owen’s Northern France journey continues
Following shell-shock and a period of convalescence in which he met fellow poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, Wilfred wrote some of his most powerful poetry and returned to France in August 1918 - at the beginning of the period historians refer to as the Hundred Days Offensive, the tide at last turning in the allies’ favour. Wilfred later won the Military Cross for his part in an attack on the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line at Joncourt.
The tragic loss of soldiers’ lives in the last days of WW1: Wilfrield Owen grave
For families to lose a son or brother during this final period – just before the Armistice - must have seemed like a particularly agonising irony. Families like Wilfred’s.
The soldier - whose verse spoke for so many - tragically lost his life bravely crossing the Sambre-Oise canal just seven days before the end of WW1. Wilfred was only 25.
Those wishing to make a poignant pilgrimage can visit the Wilfried Owen’s grave in Ors Communal Cemetery, the Western Front Association’s commemorative plaque, the canal and the Maison Forestière from where he wrote his last letter home.
Discover the Northern France remembrance sites at a slow pace
A good way to explore the commemorative sites is by bike. On the coastal remembrance trail, hire a bike from La Baleine Royale in smart Le Touquet to take in the town’s highlights (café-life, the market, beaches…) then press on to Etaples war cemetery. You can take in more WW1 memorials across the region by bike or on foot by searching up Cycling the Western Front and the Remembrance Trails of Northern France.
And find out more about your own WW1 soldier
To research your own WW1 soldier, start your journey by searching CWGC online resources.
Useful information
Tourist Board Information of Etaples
Boulevard Bigot Descelers
F-62630 Étaples
Tel: +33 3 21 09 56 94
Tourist Board Information of Arras
Hôtel de ville
Place des Héros
F- 62000 Arras
Tel: +33 3 21 51 26 95
Tourist Board Information of Le Cateau-Cambrésis
48, rue de Noyon
F-59400 CAMBRAI
Tel: +33 3.27.78.36.15
Places to visit
La Baleine
104 Rue de Metz
F-62520 Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
Tel: + 33 3 21 05 50 00
La Maison Forestière Wilfred Owen
D959 F-59360 Ors
Tel : +33 3 27 84 54 83
The Flesquières tank - Philippe Gorczynski
3 bis rue du moulin
F-59267 Flesquières
+33 (0)3 27 81 45 70 Upon reservation only.
Where to stay?
Hôtel Westminster
Avenue du Verger
F- 62520 Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
Tel : +33 3 21 05 48 48
Hôtel de l'Univers & restaurant
3 Place de la Croix Rouge
F- 62000 Arras
Tel: +33 3 21 71 34 01
Beatus (hotel & restaurant) Philippe Gorczynski
718 avenue de Paris
F-59400 Cambrai
Tel: +3 3 27 81 45 70
Where to eat?
Aux Pêcheurs d'Etaples
Quai de la Canche
Boulevard de l'impératrice
F- 62630 Étaples
Tel: +33 3 21 94 06 90
La Bulle d'O
1 Boulevard de Strasbourg, F- 62000 Arras
Tel: +33 3 21 16 19 47
Patisserie Thibaut : Tea room
50 Place des Héros, F- 62000 Arras
Tel: +33 3 21 71 53 20
Shopping gourmand
« La finarde » (maturing cheese cellar)
Boulevard du Général De Gaulle
F- 62000 Arras
Tel: +33 3 21 73 44 21
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