2014 MARKS the centenary of the start of World War I, which raged across Europe from 1914 to 1918.
Across France and Belgium, events are being scheduled to commemorate, respect and remember those lost in battle along the Western Front.
First World War tourism has become big business in recent years, with towns such as Ypres in Flanders, now largely sustained by tourism.
Official commemoration ceremonies will begin in August 2014, with events expected to carry on until 2018, as landmark days and events are remembered.
France will hold a National Ceremony on November 11, 2014 to inaugurate a new memorial at the First World War cemetery, Notre Dame de Lorette, near Arras, where more than 40,000 men lie.
Meanwhile, every Sunday from mid-April until November 11, 2014, the cemetery will light a ‘Souvenir Flame’ in the centre of the cemetery.
South of Arras, in the medieval town of Peronne, the Historial de La Grande Guerre presents one of the best French museums of World War I. For 2014, the museum will host an exhibition on the ‘Music, Sounds and Silences’ of war.
A new venue, the Great War Battlefields Remembrance Centre, will open at Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, in November 2014. Seven themed spaces will detail the main phases of the war.
At the Musée de La Grande Guerre in Meaux, ‘The British Empire Goes to War exhibition’, created in partnership with the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum in London, will open in June and run until the end of the year.
The new edition of the Louvre, the Louvre Museum in Lens, will host an exhibition entitled War Tragedies (1800-2014). The exhibition will go on show in May 2014.
The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 has tried to create the experience of trench warfare, creating mini-labyrinths from sandbags. Similarly, the trenches exhibition at Diksmuide is expected to form part of a new museum being built close to the site, while for an authentic experience, The Sanctuary Wood Museum, east of Ypres, still has some original, muddy trenches to explore.
Events will also move skywards, as the Amiens-Glisy Aerodrome hosts the Aerial Centenary, Somme 1914-18, remembering the first military planes to fly over the Somme. The air show will include flyovers, an exhibition, and workshops for children in making kites and scale models. The event takes place September 12-14, 2014.
Those planning to visit the actual sites of the First World War need to remember that most of the battlefields are quite remote from public transport.
By Sarah Ann McCay