I just got back from a school day trip to Verdun.

[Franzl]

Verdun, place where one of the biggest and most important battles of WWI was fought. 700,000 dead and wounded....and neither side gained more than a couple of meters in that process.

Just a waste, a pure waste.

Anyway, to the trip itself....I didn't think it was very sensible from the start.....had to get up at 4:30 am to drive to school to make the bus. 4 1/2 hours each way....and a little over 6 hours actually in Verdun (well....at the historic sites, at least), only had about 45 minutes in the town itself....and that time was cleverly invested in visiting the first bar we found....makes the trip back more pleasent, you see

Anyway....it was worth seeing, I suppose, but more time is probably necessary to really gain much out of it.

[Franzl]

The battle was about 10 months long.

The 700,000 was the total amount of casualties, including wounded...permanently disabled, etc.

If we just count those that died, the Germans lost about 140,000 and the French lost a little more than 160,000.

[Franzl]

You're living somewhere in Hesse right?  I just recently discovered that is where my peoples came from...at least on my father's side.  Mostly from around Darmstadt.  If you run into any Damm(Dahm,Dohm), Meister or Weifenbach, tell 'em you know some dude on the internet that is probably distantly related to them.

I live only about 12 miles from Darmstadt.

So in other words...some dude I know on the Internet comes from the same American town my family lives in (only 1 mile away) whose ancestors come from the same area I'm currently living in.

Weird.

[Franzl]

Here's a cool fact about Verdun. Around the town (nearly 20k people) there are about 9 towns that have the status of a municipality but have no inhabitants. They were all destroyed during the Battle of Verdun and never reconstructed. They are "administered" by a municipal council of 3 members named by the prefect.

EDIT: These communes are Beaumont, Bezonvaux, Cumières, Douaumont, Fleury, Haumont, Louvemont, Ornes, Vaux

I was in Fleury and Douaumont. Nice scenery actually

[Franzl]

probably kind of tasteless to ask in a thread that should be dedicated to the battle...but....

Hashemite, how did Verdun vote in the 2007 presidential election?

I would guess they were strongly in favor of Sarkozy.

[Franzl]

OK, I've been to a couple areas in France.

Paris, Verdun....and about 4 years ago, I spent a week in St. Péray/Valence on a school exchange program.

From what I could see...and I won't count Paris (as like NYC, it's kind of a sh**t hole)....Saint Péray seemed to be much more wealthy, and clean...and just generally better in shape. So your description of Verdun as "working class" does make sense to me