"Sur les pas de Wilfred Owen", the remembrance trail in Ors (Northern France)

Everybody knows that business-wise one of the most prominent points of the First World War Centenary is the worldwide tourism movement connected with it. Just to take the French case, every year millions of tourists visit the Somme battlefields. We have a similar situation in the Flanders fields. It's not the same with the Piave or Isonzo areas. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with the connection between the Centenary and tourism, provided that the touristic offer coming from WW1 tour operators is able to design always new and respectful paths and itineraries. Since the aftermath, the battlefields have always been the destination of people wanting to see and understand more about the battlefields where their beloved fought and too often died. So nothing is new on all fronts. We thank Delphine Bartier of ADRT NORD TOURISME for sharing with us the details, the press release and some pictures of the inauguration of the "Sur les pas de Wilfred Owen", a "remembrance trail" dedicated to one of the poets we already wrote about in this post. 

Here is the short introduction we read in the press release:

Ors, 4th November 1918, 05.45 hours: Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen of the Manchester Regiment and his platoon launched an attack on a German position on the opposite bank of the Sambre-Oise canal. Under a hail of machine-gun fire, Wilfred Owen and 104 other men perished just one week before the signing of the armistice. One of the great names in modern poetry had fallen. 120 years after his birth, an audio-guided walk will take visitors in the footsteps of Wilfred Owen. Nord Tourism opens this walking trail and its associated interpretation panel on 2nd June 2013 along with Nord Pas de Calais tourism. Starting out from the Maison Forestière or Forester’s House opened in October 2011 and Simon Patterson’s work of art in his memory where he spent his last night, the trail passes through the woodlands of the Bois l’Evêque and the cemetery where he was laid to rest and on to the banks of the canal. An audio guided tour by Cambrai tourism office is also available free of charge. The 6 km trail (allow 1¾ hours) is also something of a nature walk taking in part of the woodland of the Bois l’Evêque and its history. The trail also speaks of the motivation of the mayor of Ors in paying to the poet, who was little known in France, the homage to which he is entitled.

Download the guide (from mid June in English):
www.tourisme-nord.com
www.remembrancetrails-northernfrance.com

The trail was officially launched on Sunday 2nd June, to see the trail in pictures:
www.facebook.com/GreatWarJourneys

More links:
http://www.patrimoinedefrance.fr/Sur-les-pas-de-Wilfred-Owen-son
http://nord-pas-de-calais.france3.fr/2013/06/03/ors-inauguration-d-un-chemin-sur-les-pas-de-wilfred-owen-poete-soldat-de-14-18-262775.html

And here below we are able to share some images of the trail we received.