Some people had thought that the interest about World War One would fade away after the Centenary comemorations and that the COVID19 crisis would give a fatal hit.
A short overview on the Summer 2026 statistics leads to a firm denial. Between mid-June and mid-September, a total of 1210 adults and 237 children have attended a guided tour of the Vauquois underground battlefield, which is already more than during the year 2025. Besides, those figures do not include all the people who conducted a surface tour only, as they came either out of the association agenda or with a too short time frame to register for a guided tour and just had access to our exhibition rooms.
The Summer of 2026 illustrates the variety of the visitors of the Great War battlefields : French families from the whole country with young kids the during the school holidays, History fans from all countries whether isolated or as part of a wider guided tour, pilgrims following the tracks of a family member during the war, people from the military coming to experience a historical battlefield that can stil provide lessons for contemporary operations…
Some examples among others :
- a 2-generation family from Indiana following the steps of their WW2 veteran in the Argonne area,
- a multinational group gathering clients from the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand, as part of a tour organized by the British company “The Cultural Experience” (website : Expertly Led Historical & Archaeological Holidays And Tours | The Cultural Experience ),
- many citizens form the Netherlands and Belgium who annually set up their tent or caravan in the Argonne area,
- finally, an American Dad and his teenage son, who eventually joined our association.
Comments that were left in the Vauquois visitors’ book, increasing number of registration and extra donation testify the attention drawn by the Vauquois guides and reinforce our determination to continue our efforts to preserve this unique battlefield.
To finish with, many thanks to all those who shared their pictures along with their kind comments.
