Hotel for Mons touring; 9 single rooms needed

[WilliamRev]

Hello everyone,

 

Nine of us are visiting the Western Front this summer, including a couple of days exploring Mons/Le Cateau (no dates fixed, probably late June), and we will need 2 nights in a reasonably nearby hotel. Where is a good town/hotel to stay for Mons, given that we need nine single rooms? We have cars, so it can be a few miles away.

 

All ideas welcome! Thanks,

 

William

Edited 18 January , 2018 by WilliamRev

[ianjonesncl]

Stayed in the IBIS Mons. Directly opposite the station. I am not sure know many cars you will have but the car park is quite small.

Access to the motorway was fairly easy and allowed us the visit most of the key sites around Mons, the actions on the withdrawal to Le Cateau.

 

 

[nigelcave]

It depends whether your focus is going to be Mons or Le Cateau. In many respects Le Cateau is more rewarding and it will be easier to get in and out of your hotel. I stayed in a perfectly adequate, if a little run down, hotel in Caudry on several occasions.

[WilliamRev]

Thanks both of you. Ian, I will investigate Mons Ibis. Nigel, good point. I think that we plan to spend two nights in Mons and then leave, spending a day touring Le Cateau, moving to Peronne in the evening for two further nights, from which we plan to explore Cambrai and one or two other less-visited battlefields. Things are still at the planning stage. The plan is to visit places that none of us have been to before. I am very interested in 3rd Division (no one else seems to be - talk about forgotten divisions!), and am very excited about visiting Le Cateau.

 

William

[nigelcave]

On 1/20/2018 at 19:15, WilliamRev said:

Thanks both of you. Ian, I will investigate Mons Ibis. Nigel, good point. I think that we plan to spend two nights in Mons and then leave, spending a day touring Le Cateau, moving to Peronne in the evening for two further nights, from which we plan to explore Cambrai and one or two other less-visited battlefields. Things are still at the planning stage. The plan is to visit places that none of us have been to before. I am very interested in 3rd Division (no one else seems to be - talk about forgotten divisions!), and am very excited about visiting Le Cateau.

 

William

For my money, Le Cateau is a more rewarding place to visit than Mons: the 'towns' have grown a bit, but most of it is largely as it was; and in any case, apart from Caudry, they were not particularly significant. Mons is a navigational nightmare, has got quite built up, has fast roads in inconvenient places, the canal has been messed around with; on the other hand some of the key places on the retreat (e.g. Audregnies/Elouges etc) are very rewarding. St Symphorien is, of course, both moving and beautiful: thanks are due for that cemetery, I suppose, to the German army - for the spot, much of the design and for the honouring of the British war dead.

 

It will take you about ninety minutes to get to Le Cateau from Mons. I reckon that as a tour that battlefield is probably a three day event to do well, so a 3/4rs day would require careful planning to get a reasonable benefit. Take a good photocopy of the OH 1914 map case Le Cateau map - it is very good and very useful and, with few exceptions, is almost as good as any other to navigate by.

Edited 22 January , 2018 by nigelcave