Final-year school trip to the memorial sites of the two World Wars: Ypres, Normandy, Verdun and Struthof (6 days)

Day 1: Departure from your school and Ypres

• Departure from your school in the morning, at the time agreed with you, and drive to Ypres (about 130 to 250 km depending on your school, 2 to 3 hours excluding stops).
• Our drivers drive for a maximum of 3 hours, then take a 30-minute break, day and night.
• Visit to the In Flanders Fields Museum, devoted to the First World War in the Westhoek, then lunch at your own expense.
• Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, and the German military cemetery at Langemark.
• Check-in at the accommodation, dinner, then the Last Post ceremony at 8 pm beneath the Menin Gate.

Day 2: Drive to Normandy and Arromanches

• Departure after breakfast for Normandy (about 430 km, 5.5 hours).
• Lunch at your own expense during a stop on the way.
• Arrival in Arromanches: the remains of the artificial harbour built by the Allies in June 1944.
• 360-degree film at Arromanches 360 on the Battle of Normandy (on request).
• Check-in at the accommodation for two nights in the Caen or Bayeux area, dinner and supervised evening.

Day 3: The D-Day beaches

• Pointe du Hoc and its bomb craters, stormed by the US Rangers on 6 June 1944.
• Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, with its visitor centre.
• Lunch at your own expense.
• Visit to the Caen Memorial, devoted to the Second World War and to peace (on request).
• Dinner and supervised evening.

Day 4: Drive to Verdun

• Rooms vacated after breakfast and drive to Lorraine via Reims (about 500 km, 6.5 hours).
• Lunch at your own expense during a stop on the way.
• Arrival in Verdun in mid-afternoon and visit to the underground citadel aboard small cars (on request).
• Check-in at the accommodation, dinner and supervised evening.

Day 5: The Verdun battlefield and drive to Alsace

• Rooms vacated after breakfast, then visit to the Verdun Memorial, in the heart of the 1916 battlefield.
• The destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont, the Douaumont Ossuary and its national cemetery, and the Trench of Bayonets.
• Visit to Fort Douaumont (on request), then lunch at your own expense.
• Drive to Alsace (about 200 km, 2 hours 45 min) and check-in at the accommodation in the Bruche valley or the Strasbourg area.
• Dinner and last supervised evening.

Day 6: Natzweiler-Struthof and return to Belgium

• Departure after breakfast for Struthof (about 30 min).
• Visit to the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, the only camp of its kind built on French territory, and the European Centre of Deported Resistance Members.
• Lunch at your own expense, then daytime drive back to Belgium (about 400 to 550 km) with regular stops.
• Arrival at your school in the evening.