history

It's a historic moment! 

On September 20, 2023, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) listed 139 French and Belgian First World War memorial sites as World Heritage Sites. 

In the Somme, there are now 11 listed sites, including the Australian National Memorial and the Villers-Bretonneux Commonwealth Cemetery, both in the town of Fouilloy and individually listed.

The Val de Somme now has two listed sites. This recognition highlights both our region as a land of history, and the work of those involved in remembrance tourism, who work daily to promote the destination as an organic testimony to our collective memory.
 

Postcards to Remember 

Since the beginning of 2023, Val de Somme Tourist Office joins with Somme Tourism to support the initiative Somme Battlefields for Peace, a monetary fund which aims to make Remembrance Tourism an ethical and responsible form of tourism, with all profits from visits to cemeteries and memorials going to NGOs working in the humanitarian field or specializing in reconstruction on the soil of war-torn countries.

To this end, the Val de Somme Tourist Office has already donated funds raised during last July's "Bagpipes' march", and more recently during the Architecture National Days (Journées Nationales de l'Architecture), during which 3 guided tours of churches in Fouilloy, Corbie and Vaire-sous-Corbie raised over a hundred euros.

Since November 1st 2023, a new initiative has been in place. You can now find a collection of five "Remember to Act" postcards featuring various sites of the Remembrance trail, including the Villers-Bretonneux Australian Memorial, recently classified as a World Heritage Site, in the Tourist Office store. All cards are free of charge. Any donation in exchange for a card will be donated to Somme Battlefields for Peace !