Is Ypres worth visiting? Yes, Ypres is worth visiting. The city is beautiful with some impressive landmarks, including Menin Gate and Flanders Fields Museum. In addition, Ypres is the starting point for visiting the World War I sites, battlefields, and war cemeteries throughout the region.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient.

The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

Durbuy is the smallest city in the world. This small medieval city is a famous tourist destination for the Belgians, Dutch and French. There are though tourists from around the world. The region around Durbuy is also a visit worth, such as; Weris, La Roche, Namur etc…

The town of Waterloo makes for a great day trip from Brussels. Attractions include the view from the top of the Lion’s Mound, the adjacent visitor center, the Battle of Waterloo panorama and both Napoleon’s and Wellington’s headquarters. You can follow his adventures at Travel Experience Live.

55,000 names
6,000 Australians are among their number. Another 35,000 are commemorated at the nearby Tyne Cot Cemetery. The 55,000 names are inscribed in unit order, on tablets that form the walls of the Gate structure.

11.00 hours
11 November Armistice Day Commemorations in Ypres 11 November is a public holiday in Belgium. A special Last Post ceremony is held at the Menin Gate Memorial at 11.00 hours and various other commemorative events also take place in Ypres-Ieper on that day.

Durbuy
On 1 January 2018 the municipality had 11,374 inhabitants with the most populous town of the municipality being Barvaux. Durbuy, for commercial reasons, often calls itself the world’s smallest city. The smallest town in Belgium, officially and since 2006, is Mesen….Durbuy.

This tour is only available on Monday and Thursday. The Fromelles & Menin Gate, Ypres Day Tour takes you north out of Arras for our first stop in the village of Fromelles. The morning is spent in and around Fromelles before crossing the border into Belgium for our lunch.

The Menin Gate Memorial. Historically, the Menin Gate of Ypres was simply a crossing point over the moat and through the ramparts of the old town fortifications, on the road to the nearby town of Menin.

The Fromelles & Menin Gate, Ypres Tour commences from a respectable 9am in the beautiful city of Arras, which is a comfortable 50 minute journey from the Paris Nord railway station via the TGV (fast train) network, and will return late at night, after attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate! Depart from Arras at around 9.00am.

It had a special significance for the troops though: it was from this spot that thousands of soldiers set off for the part of the Front called the Ypres Salient – many destined never to return. This became the chosen site for one of the grandest and most haunting memorials of the Great War.