Summer 2024

The giants of the north at the town hall
when the town’s lofty belfry was being built.
The 75m high UNESCO-listed belfry, which
took almost 100 years to complete, was voted
France’s favourite monument in 2015. Take a
lift and climb the last few stairs to perch on the
viewing platform and take in superb views over
the town.
Below is the town hall. Destroyed during
World War I, it was rebuilt with a spectacular
Flamboyant Gothic façade, while the interior
features exquisite art deco rooms. The tourist
office is based here, watched over by several
giants, UNESCO-listed larger-than-life
effigies. Made from willow and papier-mâché
these party loving, several-metres-high
puppets, stars of festivals and carnivals, are
the pride and joy of northern France.
Underneath the town hall, and accessible
from the tourist office you’ll find Les Boves,
a labyrinth of underground galleries first dug
out in the 9th Century. These former chalk
quarries were once used for religious services
before becoming storage space for wealthy
merchants, and then barracks for soldiers
during World War 1, a permanent exhibition
tells the story.
Behind the town hall is the Saint-Vaast
Abbey and Museum of Fine Arts (which is
closed until 2030 while it is undergoing
transformative works). And close by, a plaque
marks the house where local boy Maximilien
Robespierre, the “terror” of the French
Revolution, lived from 1787-1798.
A short walk from the city centre, the UNESCO
listed, 17 th century Citadel of Arras was the
first fortress created by Louis XIV’s legendary
military engineer Vauban, at the same time a
second fortress was built in nearby Lille. The
wonderfully preserved fort, which functioned
as a military base until 2010, is essentially
a town within a town and has been given a
new lease of life as a community hub with
residential housing and businesses including
a cheese refinery, treetop adventure centre
and honey farm. It’s also where Main Square,
the famous annual music festival, is held.
Nicknamed the “belle inutile” as it was never
besieged, the Citadel was used as a prison by
the Germans during World War II and there is a
moving memorial garden created by the local
townspeople in honour of the 280 members of
the local Resistance who were executed here.
Remembrance tourism –
bringing history to life
Next to the citadel is the Faubourg
d’Amiens Cemetery, last resting place
of more than 2,500 Commonwealth
servicemen killed in World War I. When
I visited, gardeners were tidying the
cemetery, keeping it in pristine condition as
always. They stopped work and stood stock
still, as did I, when the haunting sounds of a
lone piper carried on the air. The musician
was Philip Astor who was visiting with his
wife and played the bagpipes in honour of
his grandfathers who fought in the. Great
War. We all had tears in our eyes.
The gardeners were from the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission Experience in
Beaurains, just 4km from the centre of
Arras. Visit for a fascinating glimpse into the
Philip Astor
organisation’s painstaking work maintaining
Commonwealth cemeteries, monuments and
memorials around the world.
Forever marked by two world wars, there are
many major remembrance sites in and around
Arras including the Ring of Remembrance on
which are inscribed the 579,606 names of
every soldier who died in the region of Nord-
Pas de Calais in the Great War, whatever their
nationality or rank and regardless of what side
they were on. Vimy Memorial is Canada’s
largest overseas memorial. And Ablain-Saint-
Nazaire French Military Cemetery, also known
as Notre Dame de Lorette, the largest French
military cemetery in the world.
Wellington Quarry, a 10-minute walk from the
town, is a museum and memorial to those who
fought in the battle of Arras. On April 9, 1917,
24,000 British Empire soldiers, billeted in a
warren of underground tunnels, leapt forth in
the most daring surprise attack of the Great
War. It’s an emotional presentation, most
people require tissues at the final stage.
18 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 19