terres de memoire somme battlefield tours

Highly Recommend the Terres de Memoire Somme Battlefield Tours. Very informative and knowledgeable your guide Sylvester..

We had an amazing two day tour with the friendly and knowledgeable Sylvester. Nothing was too much trouble, even provided paperwork on my ancestor and took the tour to the farm where he was killed and at the end of the tour arranged for us to be dropped at Lille train station for the Eurostar to London :-) Recommend highly :-)

My husband and I visited the Somme area 20 years ago and were keen to take our teenaged sons to make history live for them. We caught the train from Paris for a day trip (even an hour breakdown did not ruin the day). Sylvestre was also our guide and was wonderful. Having a knowledgeable guide (and a driver for that matter) really added to our experience. I particularly liked Syvelstre's comments about life in the French countryside and our lunch at a local restaurant. For Australians the Somme tour is a very emotional experience and it was fantastic to have such a font of knowledge with us (our guide). I would thoroughly recommend it.

We booked with Terres de Memoire from Australia on the strength of 2 recommendations - one from TripAdvisor reviews and the other from a military historian connected with the RSL back home. Our guide was Lea and she kept us engaged and informed despite atrocious weather. She certainly knows her stuff and has perfect english. We were also very pleased that she was able to find the tombstone of one of our descendants. Our lunch and coffee stops helped warm us up on a pretty miserable day. One consequence of the lousy weather, we were the only visitors at each of the sites we visited. The 8 seater mini-van was comfortable and warm out of the wind and rain. At the end, Lea dropped us back at our hotel. Thanks for a great day.

Wow!We did a private 1 day tour with Sylvestre as a group of 2 adults and 2 children aged 11 and 14.Sylvestre was so knowledgable and so engaging with both the adults and kids that everyone learnt a lot during the day. We visited many memorials , graves, a museum, a bunker and the trenches. The highlight for our youngest was searching for old relics on the side of the road and she declared the tour as the " best tour ever" . This region has many areas that have been untouched since the war so it is easy to imagine the soldiers on the battlefield.This tour is worth every cent.

Yesterday we experienced a wonderful day tour of parts of the Somme with Sylvester as our driver and very informative guide. We took our 10 year old grandson with us as a special birthday present and we all three learned so much. It was a very informative day with many reflective moments. Sylvester knows his history very well and shared his knowledge with great passion. There were eight in our mini-van , we enjoyed an excellent lunch and a break to share stories. Our grandson"s report on his blog last night showed us just how much he had learned . A day to be remembered !

We have just completed the 2 day tour of the Somme with Terres de Memoire, Somme Battlefield Tours. Our guide for the 2 days was Sylvester, who not only is a great driver, he also knows his history and very quickly is able to determine what his clients want, and which battlefields & memorials would best suit his group. Day 1 we had 2 Americans & 3 Australians, day 2 was just us 2 Aussies. But no one was disappointed with the tour or where it took us. Also from day 1 when enquiring about the tour, via emails, one always felt confident that this would be good, by the efficient manner every detail was handled, even to a few days before the tour receiving an email informing us of our tour guide (name)and reaffirming pick up times.All in all we had 2 magnificent days, thanks Sylvester.

As a party of Australians touring the Somme we could not have chosen a better tour or guide, Sylvestre. We were picked up in Paris from our apartment and spent a long and emotional day.Sylvestre is not only passionate about what he does, but has a deep knowledge which made the day a memory. There is no doubting the horror that France faced and as Australians we must not forget their legacy - just as they don't forget ours. All of our party were moved by each place we visited.And just to add to the experience a wonderful lunch in Albert at Cafe Hygge!Thank you Sylvestre.

Firstly we travelled to East Mersea to join our friends for this tour. Our coach driver Michael sets off for Dover where we picked up our tour manager David. On arrival in Calais we made our way to Lille to the Morphee Hotel. The days that followed were incredible we explored the area of the Somme including the Lochnager Crater. We saw the sights of Ypres Salient we did museums, the sights we saw were unbelievable and our tour manager David explained everything as we went into each of the villages and the cemetery's. We visited Tyne Cot Cemetery the largest for the Commonwealth Forces. The Flanders Fields Museum. Experienced The Last Post at the Menin Gate. There was so much to see. We visited the Vimy Ridge National Historic Site of Canada. The Thiepval memorial. We even made a special trip to one of the cemetery's especially for a couple who had a family member buried there. This trip is so worth while.

Lea, our guide, was generous, warm and knowledgeable. A terrific combination when you are dealing with bad weather and a sad objective. I recommend Terres de Memoire for anyone interested in exploring the sites in France of conflict along the Somme in World War 1. The "Great War" is central to our understanding of so much that followed in art and the social sciences as well as technology and medicine.

I was fortunate enough to have a private tour as the other planned participants did not arrive. Leia ( not sure of spelling ) was an excellent guide, highly knowledgeable but more importantly had clearly thought deeply about the subject matter and had a wisdom beyond her years. As I was solo there was greater flexibility and this allowed us to spend more time in the areas I was most interested in. Viillers-Brettoneux was the highlight for me and the fact that we were able to enter the school grounds ( it was school holidays) was just wonderful seeing he Aboriginal inspired art and the sign across the shelter shed 'never forget Australia'. Never a nationalist this was quite heart warming. It would be helpful maybe for the company to send a text/email just prior to the tour - say a day before- to confirm meeting places and times as this was the only challenging aspect. Otherwise we'll worth the trip. Merci beaucoup Leia it was a pleasure spending the day with you

After getting a list of available tours of the Somme battlefield (while still in the States) I contacted several & chose Terres de Memoire because of their prompt & detailed e-mail responses to my questions as well as their description of a big picture overall view of the battle area. At 9:00 AM I was picked up at the Amiens train station along with 6 Aussies by Lea in a comfortable van and then conducted by her on a very informative & personable tour of several of the memorials, villages, a museum and battle sights in the area. The final stop on the tour was a long descriptive wander thru the original trench lines in the Newfoundland area. Not only does Lea have an extensive grasp of the history and layout of the battle area but she also speaks perfect English (tho with a distinct Australian accent) lapsing into her native French only when an occasional car would block her way. All in all it was a very enjoyable and comfortable 1 day tour made all the more pleasurable by Lea, the number 1 guide to the now quiet Western Front.

Recently four Australian friends were fortunate to join a two day tour of the Somme and Belgian Battlefields with Terres de Memoire. Sylvestre was our guide and we could not have had a more knowledgeable and committed guide. Sylvestre tailored the tour to the Australian involvement in WWI and had provided information about relatives of two of our group who were killed in WWI. This really made the 2 days special to our group. The tour was fascinating and we could not have wished for a better experience. Booking the tour was done on-line, based on previous Trip Advisor reviews. Everything about the trip was streamlined and quite excellent. I would highly recommend Terres de Memoire to any others contemplating such a tour. A not to be missed experience.

We went on a 2 day tour with the most marvellous Lea, along with 2 other Australian Couples. Good coverage of the Somme Battlefields from 1916 with interesting and informative stops at Villers-Bretonnex and Peronne Museums plus trenchlines and memorials. Good stops and personalised where required, the Terres team researched the service records and took us to the cemetary to find the grave of a relative of one of the party. So be sure to add in that info if you had reletives that served in the war when you contact this wonderful company.Seeing the ground over which this campaign was fought really brings home what it may have been like and the frequent cemeteries are quite sobering.Great product and service by Sylvestre and team, good knowledge of the actions and the units involved. The 2 day tour covers quite a bit of ground. We did an off the track stop off at the Sericourt Gardens, which whilst not directly connected with the battlefield sites, was quite a nice stop to add some variation.

We went on a one day Terres de Memoire Somme Battlefield Tour which we booked online from Australia. I made several email enquiries and each time Estelle answered quickly. Our guide was Sylvestre and most of our group were Australians. It was quickly evident that Sylvestre was deeply passionate about WW1 history and was very keen to pass on his knowledge to us. It was a cool and showery morning which probably added to the tour - what the soldiers must have gone through is hard to imagine but this tour gave such a good picture of the geography and timing of the battles. It wasn't all serious and sombre- it was very reflective, especially visiting the memorials at Villers-Bretonneux, Pozieres, Newfoundland and Thiepval- but we enjoyed lunch together in a lovely cafe in Albert and Sylvestre was keen to also give us a good insight of French culture, especially in the country. It was a wonderful day and we learnt so much. Thank you Sylvestre, our drivers Eric and François, and Estelle.