Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace

The Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace street exhibition occupies one whole side of Luxembourg Gardens, and we walked along it looking at each of the scores of stunning photos--contemporary photographs of places where WWI battles occurred--and reading the provided texts. All wars are hideous, but WWI was particularly so. The contrasts between the lands now and the horrors that occurred on them a century ago are manifest in the great photography by Michael St. Maur Shiel. The exhibit is British in origin and will be traveling internationally in the next four years--perhaps coming to a city near you. Don't miss it. Or, just have a good look at the website.

It goes on for hundreds of meters

La Boiselle Crater, in the Somme; much of trench warfare was tunneling beneath the
enemy and then demolishing his trenches and tunnels with tons of high explosives--
the explosions of which could be heard in London 

An aerial view of trenches and craters at Beaumont-Hamel, Somme

Sambre-Oise canal, where the poet Wilfred Owen (and hundreds of others) died a
couple weeks before the war's end..."dulce et decorum est..."

Fort Douamont, Verdun...one of many WWI sites we have visited over the years...
Vimy Ridge being the most recent

A cemetery at Verdun

More of the exhibition

In a side-bar, the future American president, Harry Truman

A moving and eminently worthwhile exhibit