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We drive to the Alps most summers and the last few times I've noticed this little area, just off the motorway to the south of Reims.
It's a little double hedge with a big tree at one end and I think there is a stone or plaque at the tree end but it's hard to spot.
This is it on google streetview: https://maps.app.goo.gl/7WJoPHc4VwT2NXm19
It's not marked as a war grave or anything like that on google maps but is between the motorway and the railway line so my suspicion it's possibly a memorial to someone or something that was found during construction.
Short of stopping on the hard shoulder next summer does anyone have any ideas what it might be or how I could find out?
Given the location - just south of Reims, I wouldn't be at all surprised that it'd be remains of a '14-18 soldier found when the motorway was built, but I'd have thought they'd remove them and re-bury them at any of the war grave site once they discovered the nationality. Having said that, the whole area is littered with history, so it could be anything from medieval on-wards.
Could you not either 'break down' at the site, or perhaps ask at the Aire just up the road, some-one may know?
Could also be a commemorative harden for someone who died during construction.
It's shown quite clearly on streetview from july 2008, there are flowers and a headstone with an inscription. It does look like a grave.
An interesting question is why the crash barriers alongside, only at this bit; maybe to stop drivers pulling onto the grass to have a look (or a picnic!).
It's shown quite clearly on streetview from july 2008, there are flowers and a headstone with an inscription. It does look like a grave.
An interesting question is why the crash barriers alongside, only at this bit; maybe to stop drivers pulling onto the grass to have a look (or a picnic!).
Alternatively perhaps, anywhere else the best option for a vehicle going out of control is going onto the flat ground to the right. The barrier protects the memorial from this.
I quite like the mystery of this. I guess it's not highlighted on google maps is to prevent people trying to visit it from the motorway.
Some of the older streetview images allow glimpses of the memorial stone and it has writing on it but it's not legible.
No mention of it on the list of memorials for the area (that I've managed to find so far).
I doubt MrsL will let me feign a breakdown next year...maybe I'll never know what it is!
IMO the crash barriers are there to reduce injury to occupants of a vehicle leaving the road. I am of the opinion that it is a grave. I have been on prolonged wild goose chase with Gemini who was convinced it was a surveying datum point, that conformed to a specific pattern. I could not get it to show me any others, despite it giving me lots of coordinates. In the end Gemini admitted it was making it all up!
IMO the crash barriers are there to reduce injury to occupants of a vehicle leaving the road.
This and preventing impacted infrastructure causing an immediate danger to other traffic. There's a secondary benefit to protecting the infrastructure and getting everything moving again
There's a roadside memorial to the USAAF 401st Bombardment Group on the A427 Oundle Road at Deenethorpe, which is on Google.
Is/was there an airbase or similar nearby?
It was certainly an active area during WW1.
