Cheap Flights to Albert and the Somme, France

Step back in time to the Battlefields of Northern France.

Albert is located in the Somme region of Northern France, world famous as being the location of some of the bloodiest battles and one of the most severely devastated regions of France during the First World War. However the Somme has much more to offer aside from its sad past with some glorious towns and seaside villages all located in the area.

Amiens is one of the larger towns in the Somme region and is home to a Cathedral classified as a UNESCO world heritage site and the largest Gothic structure ever built.  There are many Cathedrals and religious houses scattered across the Somme, many intricately designed and well worth visiting. Along the river in Amiens you can take a pleasant stroll and take in the jaunty house frontages, restaurants and antique shops.

The Somme is also home to over 30 gardens and parks where you can spend warm afternoons walking amongst the greenery or enjoying a picnic before heading off for more sightseeing including some of the brick and stone built fortresses dotted across the region including the 15th century Rambures.

To the west of the Somme lies the Picardy Coast with a picturesque waterfront, soft sand, sea and the River Somme estuary. Along the beach is where you can try the majority of activities on offer including horse riding along the beach, kayaking and sailing. Albert is also only 20 minutes by fast train to Lille and 15 mins to Arras.

Food in the Somme definitely does not disappoint with locally grown vegetables, fish caught in the river or English Channel and dishes such as soups and fricassees to be enjoyed throughout the year. If you fancy trying other new things you can use Albert and the Somme as a base for a trip further a field. Hire a car and head out to Lille which is nearby or even drive west into Belgium.

With everything that the Somme has to offer there is no escaping the fact that its World War I history is the main ‘attraction’ for the thousands of visitors and pilgrims that visit the region every year. Much of the landscape of the Somme region still reflects the battle lines of 1914-1918 during which the region severely suffered.

Albert is home to the Somme 1916 Museum, which tells the tale of life in the trenches during the infamous Battle of the Somme in July 1916. It has several displays and exhibits including war artefacts recovered from the ground of the surrounding battlefields. The museum itself also has its own history; it is housed in underground passages which were used as air raid shelters during World War II.

Unsurprisingly Albert’s is not the only war museum in the region with several dotted across the Somme, including the Historial of the Great War Museum in Péronne.

It is highly recommended that you hire a car when visiting the Somme so that you can reach all corners of its war history. Memorials and war cemeteries are seemingly everywhere you look with 243 cemeteries in this region alone, including large British Memorials in Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel. The Lochnagar Crater in La Boiselle is another key site, which is 100 metres wide and 30 metres deep caused by a mine explosion at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme.

Many guided Battlefield Tours are available from key towns in the Somme, including Albert. These tours are a great way to learn about the history of WWI in sometimes harrowing detail. The tales of lost soldiers are sure to touch everyone and the tour guides will take you to every key battleground, memorial and museum. You can even catch the steam train from Froissy, and take the exact route that the train took to supply troops on the front line.

Although a trip to Albert and the Somme may not leave you with entirely happy memories, it is sure to be a trip and a destination that you will, and should, never forget.