Verdun has an impressive cathedral, but its name resonates because of the bloody trench warfare fought around the town during World War I. More than a million men—French and German—perished in the 1916-17 battles in this area 70 mi/110 km northwest of Nancy. Area sights include the Town Museum, War Museum, the Trench of Bayonets and the forts of Douaumont and Vaux, as well as the battlefields, still marked by innumerable shell holes (some of which are thought to still contain live ammunition or poison gas).
