Sunday, January 15, 2012

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery & Memorial, France


Yesterday we drove to Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial  in France. It was about a three hour drive from Baumholder. Most of our trips to France have been to towns just off the autobahn but on this trip we got to drive through quite a bit of countryside. The roads were winding and narrow and the buildings were very old. It was interesting to see real towns and not just tourist attractions.


This stretch reminded me of our home state of South Dakota

I love how there are trees planted on both sides of the road.

One of these days I intend to look up what those balls are in the trees.

We drove by too many French cemeteries to stop at so I took pictures out the car window as we went by. 

We went by just as many churches

...and more cemeteries

This entire road was about the size of a normal lane in the U.S. Good thing we didn't meet very many vehicles!





There are 14,246 military dead buried here, the largest number in Europe.

Top of the chapel

The frost made interesting patterns on the stone steps.

There was still a little frost on the bushes that were in the shade.

The cemetery covers 130.5 acres! It's huge!

My husband and fellow soldier climbing the steps to the chapel







Each arch has the names of the missing inscribed in the wall. There are a total of 954 names.






Inside the chapel



This is on the right wall when entering the chapel (in English)

On the left side (in French)

The guest book



The sheer number of headstones was overwhelming



The visitor's center

Looking from the visitor's center toward the chapel.

My soldier 

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