The Solo Scale:

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If you’re going on a World War I tour, you’ll visit a lot of cemeteries and monuments. Depending on your nationality, some of them may have more importance than others. If your family fought in the war, there might be an extremely personal connection that ties you to the courageous boys and men who fought over a century ago.

When I first booked a World War I sights tour, I did so with one destination in mind — Vimy Ridge. I’m not a massive history buff by any means. However, as a Canadian, I’m fascinated by this period in history. It’s fairly iconic when it comes to shaping the national identity of Canadians. There are many battles that helped shape how history would look at Canadians. I can’t recommend Tim Cook’s books enough to learn more about that. Vimy Ridge is truly a unique location. It’s also marked by a monument so massive that distinguishes it from other sights. When I was looking for a tour for the North of France, one stop was non-negotiable — Vimy.

When planning for the trip, I never expected the pock-marked landscape. This uneasy terrain still holds ammunition that hasn’t been detonated. It does take a little bit of mental preparation for all the places you visit given their history. One of the surprising things I discovered at Vimy and Beaumont-Hamel is that the land is Canadian soil. In Beaumont-Hamel, they’ve even brought in trees from Canada.

That said, that soil was like being on another planet. The ground is still hilly with the divots from the shelling that took place a century ago.

All around, too, there are warnings about not walking on the grass because there are still undetonated mines out there. There is a touch of mental reckoning to do with the fact that humans can’t cut the grass due to the danger, but they’ll let sheep roam and cut it for them (likely because of a disparity in weight, but it does lead to some very darkly comedic mental images).

You’ll meet with your student guide once you arrive, driving past the shell-marked landscape. Your guide might not even be a local. By complete happenstance, our guide was not only from Canada as well, but grew up in the exact same town as me, down to living two streets away. She, and many others, were doing an exchange program and staying nearby in Arras, giving tours at Vimy.

The tour will begin with the depths of the massive tunnel complex. Over 10km of tunnels were dug to support the troops at Vimy Ridge with supplies. They also served as communication tunnels. That’s a lot of distance to not only cover, but for the engineers to dig supported tunnels, and it’s even more impressive when you’re down there — elbow to elbow with chalk and flint walls.

Then, you’ll continue in the trenches outside, peering above the brick-lined walls (to mimic the sandbags from a century ago) to the keyholes that the snipers would use. With the landscape still in craters, it’s easy to imagine yourself there, ducking into the trenches to avoid being seen.

Once you’ve put yourself in the shoes of the Canadian soldiers, you’ll continue onward to the memorial.

I honestly can’t even describe how awe-inspiring and massive it is. It overlooks the ridge and the town of Lens. It really is more awesome in the proper sense of the word than anything I had seen in the battlefield touring to that point. This, like other notable areas in France, is Canadian soil. The mood was bleak, but in a way, that fit the sombre reality of why the monument exists.

If you’re Canadian, interested in WWI history, or simply want to admire the grandiose monument that stands to commemorate the lives lost in Vimy Ridge, you can find more information about visiting and Vimy itself here on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial Page.

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