You can take a tour through its three levels and see the guns, turrets and weaponry which remain. They call them the silent cities, the immaculate Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries that dominate the landscape along the line of the old Western Front from Ypres to Verdun. Children zoom about on cycle buggies, pensioners amble, families lap at their ice-creams and the place has a lively feel. For some truly French cuisine, our recommendation has got to be L'Epicerie Au Bon Manger, a small family-owned deli that has just a handful of tables but whose charcuterie can't be beaten and whose attention to detail will leave you smiling. On the other side of the Cloth Hall from the Menin Gate is St George’s Memorial Church, built by the same Reginald Blomfield to commemorate the more than 500,000 dead of the three battles for the Ypres Salient. By travelling via Charleville-Mézières and joining the N5 on the Belgian side you will pass close to Brûly-de-Pesche, from where Adolf Hitler orchestrated the invasion of France. It contains more than 100 German, English, French and Dutch poems, which are provided in their original language as well as in Dutch. While the Villers-Brettonneux Memorial is the most famous of this town’s Great War attractions – and possibly the best known in the Somme Valley – every visit to this hamlet should include a stop at the Victoria School built from funds raised by the children of Australian Great War soldiers. Just down a muddy track to the side of the memorial (but not accessible by car) is the peaceful Mud Corner Cemetery, for soldiers from Australia and New Zealand. If you can't find a spot, there are also a number of car parks, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. A century after World War I, Belgium’s landscape still bears the marks of a particularly small nation caught up in major military warfare. When visiting, look out for a special plaque commemorating six British soldiers (the author's great uncle included) who were, for reasons still unknown, buried in a nearby German cemetery and whose graves were later destroyed. The Canakkale Martyrs Memorial commemorates the Turkish soldiers who died in the Gallipoli Campaign. A museum all about the Battle of Passchendaele including details of the World War One sites in the area, the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 provides a comprehensive account of the battle. The Western Front stretches from Ypres in the south of Belgium to Verdun in France with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website a … The latter dates back to the 13th century, acting as a warehouse and market for the city’s textile industry. The Brest-Hero Fortress played an important role in 20th century military history. Today, it has been restored and - even though it is empty - standing inside, you get a sense of how inadequate it must have been in a theatre of war. Upon completion it was in fact found to be too small and a further 34,984 names are inscribed at Tyne Cot Cemetery (pictured below), which I will visit later. While it would surely be fitting to finish a World War I battlefields road trip with a visit to where the armistice that ended the conflict was signed, its location between Amiens and Verdun means that it actually slots more naturally into second day of this road trip. If you can be there when it happens, do - it's simple and yet quite something at the same time. The poem led to the poppy becoming a symbol of First World War remembrance. Still relatively overlooked by British visitors and therefore quieter than many similar places you will encounter on a World War I circuit, over 40,000 soldiers are buried or their remains held in the ossuary here, alongside the ashes of a number of World War II concentration camp victims. From there, it's an easy 10-minute or so walk down a country lane. The site also includes an ornate chapel and a lantern tower, and is neighboured by the 'Ring of Memory' memorial, unveiled in 2014, which lists the names of the 576,606 soldiers of 40 nationalities who died in this region during WW1, alphabetically rather than by rank. As soon as you alight the ferry follow the signs for the A26 toll road - or 'Road of the English' as it has come to be known thanks to the number of British tourists using it - and start to head south towards the city of Arras, just over an hour away. Today, there are several memorials at Anzac Cove and it is the site where Anzac Day ceremonies are held. The Holiday Inn Express hotels in both Amiens and Arras, as well as the Novotel Ieper Centrum, make a convenient base for exploring the Western Front. Even after four days of cemeteries, it's still hard not to be slightly taken aback by its sheer scale when you see it for the first time, with almost 12,00 individual white headstones lined up, and a Memorial to the Missing wall listing a further 35,000 names. If you wish to do so, take a football, shirt or scarf to leave next to the memorial, as many have done before. Over a century since the end of the war, it's still considered too contaminated by corpses, explosives, toxins and poisonous gas to farm or build on. One steadfast rule: no distinctions of military rank or social status were recognised. With the most popular option, the headset tour, you can expect to spend about an hour working your way round. Konigstein Fortress in Dresden has been everything from a stronghold to a World War II prisoner of war camp. Having escaped WW1 relatively unscathed, it boasts incredible Gothic architecture, as well as a number of tributes to soldiers killed during the First and Second World Wars. The new In The Footsteps Of Wilfred Owen walking tour takes visitors to Ors and follows the final days of the poet’s life from the house where he wrote his last letter home – the house is now an extraordinary museum – to the cemetery where he was buried. Bullecourt’s Slouch Hat Memorial – as well as the Bullecourt Digger, an Australian flag flying above the village school, and small plaques set on stone walls beside old battlefields – remember the 10,000 Australian soldiers killed and wounded during a campaign to conquer this length of Hindenburg Line in 1917.

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