Vimy & Somme: Exclusive Canadian WW1 Battlefield Pilgrimage

This day tour was amazing and informative. Claude is an excellent guide and understand his subject well.

Visiting Vimy Ridge was a very moving experience. As a Canadian very proud of the men that fought to gain this ridge. So very sad that so many had to lose their lives in doing so. Our guide, Claude, was very knowledgeable about this Vimy Ridge history, but also the history of all the other memorials we visited. He allowed us the time we wanted to experience each site and that is why we wanted a personal tour. He had answers to the many questions we had. It is a memory we will treasure forever.

The Vimy Monument is so moving. To walk in the footsteps of my grandfather was a amazing experience.

It was a good lesson in history and a reminder of the sacrifices these young men and women made! We were left reflecting on the tremendous losses!

We had a wonderful day with Claude in July 2018. Started with easy communication with Claude during the booking process, and while I had mentioned I would have my daughters with me I had not specifically requested any carseats, and yet he very thoughtfully brought a perfect carseat for my youngest. We received a lot of great information during our day, he kept all of us very interested including even my kids. The visit to the Vimy tunnels was especially great for the kids, as well as the great walk around Beaumont-Hamel. The lunch was yummy and kid-friendly. My husband and I learned a lot and got exactly what we had wanted from our day, which was to learn much more about the WWI experience of Canadians.

We took this tour with Claude in October 2017 , he was a terrific host and guide. Claude is very knowledgeable and the tour was well organized including lunch . We requested a tour of the Canadian sites in particular, and saw them all with some additions to round out the experience. A very informative and satisfying day. Thank you Claude !

<p>This excursion was completely over and above anything we expected!<br/> Claude, our guide, is top notch. Very knowledgeable and helpful.<br/> We would highly recommend this excursion.</p>

<p>Our guide, Claude, was outstanding. We originally planned to tour the WW1 sites by ourselves, but opted for the tour. Solo would have been very difficult due to poor signage and other factors. The tour was good value and well worth the money. We departed from Lille. Claude was knowledgeable!</p>

<p>This was an excellent all day tour which we highly recommend. Our guide Claude picked us up directly at our hotel at 9:00 and we went straight to the Vimy Ridge site, where we spent the majority of the morning. We visited the memorial, museum, cemetery and tunnels and drove around the site. We then drove to the Battle of the Somme sites where we had a good lunch at a small country restaurant restaurant. In the afternoon we visited Australian battlegrounds and cemetery, a large crater created by an explosion under the trenches, and the British memorial and museum. Canadians were also involved at these sites as evidenced by gravestones in the cemeteries. As we had visited the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland memorial a few days before, Claude took us instead to the peaceful South African memorial in a forest. Claude provided with us with expert information on all of the sites that we saw, the major WW1 battles in both France and Belgium, and all sorts of other information on northern France and Belgium. We had ample opportunities to ask questions and get further elaboration.</p>

<p>We saw what was advertised including Vimy Ridge, Neuville Saint Vaast Canadian N2 Cemetery, Courcelette Canadian Memorial, Thiepval Memorial, and the Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial. We also stopped in front of but did not get out to walk around a number of other memorials including a memorial to one of the Australian divisions involved in the Battle of the Somme I'm pretty sure that we would have been able to walk around if we had asked. Probably my favourite location was Vimy Ridge although every stop was quite interesting in its own way. The Thiepval Memorial to the missing is really quit staggering with the 73,000 names of soldiers with no known graves.</p> <p>Our guide, Claude, spoke excellent English, was quite personable and really knew his stuff. He provided in-depth descriptions of each site and was able to easily answer every question we asked. We also never felt rushed.</p>