France commemorates WWI heritage with Grands Jours de la mémoire

The WWI Heritage Mission is launching the first edition of ‘Grands Jours de la mémoire’, an event running from November 3 to 11, 2026. A key stop will take place on November 7 at the Musée Guerre et Paix in the Ardennes.

The event highlights the 139 funerary and memorial sites in France and Belgium that were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in September 2023. These sites, including cemeteries and monuments, serve as testimony to the nations involved in the Great War.

In the Ardennes, four specific sites are recognized: the German Cemetery and national necropolis of Chestres, the German cemetery monument in Saint-Charles at Sedan, the November 11, 1918, dead square in Vrigne-Meuse, and the German cemetery in Apremont. The program includes a roundtable discussion on November 7 featuring filmmaker Serge Tignères to discuss the role of peace and historical reenactment in transmitting history.