In 1919 french newspaper Le Petit Journal decided to have have a seven stage bicycle race across the Alsace and Lorraine, taking in Flanders, the Somme and Verdun - and so was born the Circuit des Champs de Bataille, The Tour of the Battlefields.
The event took place over April and May 1919 - barely 5 months after the armistice and 2 months before the signing of the treaty of Versailles. It toured through areas which were among the hardest fought in the war. To this day 170 square kilometres of this are is still designated a Red Zone, meaning the land is so badly damaged by the war that it is no longer capable of cultivation or human habitation.
I’m half way through this book which is part travel journal and part history with a smidge of dramatised history retelling thrown in.
A really interesting and enjoyable read [emoji106]
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