I had already visited several Vauban fortifications; however at the start of 2010 I finally visited one of the fortifications that is inscribed on the list.

Arras

From Lille I decided to visit the citadel at Arras. I apologise to any people out there who have affection for this town but this was one of the worst WHS visiting experiences I have had. The citadel itself was located about a 20 minute walk from the station through a pretty uninteresting part of town. When we got there the interior was closed, which we were pretty much expecting however I had read that there were walks around the outside that could give us a better look. This really was not obvious from the entrance and the banks of the moat just looked overgrown and uninviting. As such after taking a few pictures we just moved on. It seems that you can view something of the fortification from around the back, however there was nothing to indicate this, and we were looking pretty intently. Next to the citadel is a First World War cemetery designed by Edwin Lutyens which was reasonably nice.

We then walked through yet more uninspiring suburbs to the centre of town. It had the potential to be very nice, however something about the place was very uninspiring, after walking around the main ‘sights’ including the lovely belfry we decided to have a coffee that turned out to be exceptionally miserable. Then we just trundled of to the train station preferring to spend our remaining hour and a half there reading rather than exploring more of the town.

I’m sure some people will love Arras, it is seems to be especially good if you are looking for 1990’s French clothing, however I can’t remember a place I have enjoyed less.

Lille

Prior to my uninspiring visit to Arras I visited the Citadel in Lille (a very nice Flemish city with a French twist). This is not part of the World Heritage inscription, I guess because it is still used by the French military. However it is in a much better state of repair and you can see a quite a lot of it. The exterior is easily viewable from the nice tracks that run around the whole of the citadel. Here you can really get a feeling for the shape of the fortifications. The track was being used by a lot of locals for the walking of dogs and children trying out the bikes they got for Christmas. To make up for the fact I had forgot my running shoes I hired a Segway from the car park which was an exceptionally fun and rewarding way to see the entire complex. This provided a much better visiting experience than the one in Arras, and Lille was a much nicer city.

In addition to these I have seen several other Vauban fortifications, the most impressive were Ypres in Belgium and the walls around Luxembourg. There are a lot of his works all over France but I can't really work out why some are included in the inscription and others are not. They are interesting sites to vist and can be pretty rewarding, I just would not recommend visiting the one in Arras.