VOSGES

The most southerly sector of the Western Front is set against the spectacular backdrop of the Vosges, where the trenches ran precipitously across the Route des Cretes before plunging down to meet the Belfort Gap and Swiss frontier. Following the route in the direction of Lac Blanc towards the Tete des Faux, you arrive at what is the highest point of the Western Front; a French military cemetery stands just below the summit at an altitude of 1,121 metres.

 

The Vosges' highest mountain, the Grand Ballon, has a monument to French Alpine troops while the heavily-contested Vieil Armand is an angular-shaped ridge with a memorial-crypt and French military cemetery containing thousands of burials from the bitter Vosges fighting.The Western Front ends fairly anonymously at the picturesque village of Pfefferhouse on the Swiss Frontier, with an old customs house and the largely-obscured remains of bunkers representing the last visible trace of the conflict.