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Remembered Today:

The Citadelle, Lille: Open Days: 24-25 May


Hedley Malloch

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The Vauban Citadelle in Lille has its annual open days on 24 and 25 May. The Citadelle was designed by Vauban and is a magnificent piece of military architecture, newly-tarted up as part of Lille European City of Culture 2004. It is the HQ of the 43rd RI and, until its disbandment last year, of the 204th RI, both distinguished French regiments with impressive WW1 pedigrees. Visitors to Serre on the Somme may well have seen the monument erected to them in the French plot at the rear of Serre Road No.2 CWGC. The 43rd and the 204th were chosen to fight at Serre in 1915 because Lille was occupied by the Germans and it was thought that they would be well-motivated for the battle.

As well as a tour of the fort, you can walk around the ramparts. There you can find the Lille Pigeon War Memorial erected to the carrier-pigeons, together with a list of their battle honours. Also the wall used for executions by the Germans of French civilians in WW1; and by the British Army in 1919 for the last two SAD cases. Frites vans, toilets and ample free car parking and a free zoo make this a compelling attraction for those visitors to the battlefields with families in tow.

A final added attraction is the presence of two terrapins in the moat, both escapees from the aforementioned zoo. The Vauban Two, as they are now known, are clearly enjoying an unfettered life to the full and to date have successfully evaded all attempts to recapture them.

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Hedley,

You forgot to mention that other great tourist attraction right by the Citadel. Lille's football ground! :rolleyes::D

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Hedley,

The convenient use of the German execution wall for 2 SAD cases - what dreadful continuity and demonstration of the lack of imagination of the military mind.

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