The Scarpe and Escaut rivers name the area and also frame it, running along the top two of its edges, the former through Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux.

Mining was the main industry from the 1700s right up until the 1960s and you feel it walking through.

The slag heaps around Sabatier still remain but now as part of the landscape, not just piled on top.

The forests you walk through are apparently new, the Germans having levelled the last one to fuel their armies in World War One.

A path through the scarpe-escaut forest shaded by the treetops

Through English eyes, terrace houses in the local towns remind you of those in the north of England.

A terrace of houses in a town near Beuvrages

It all just makes you think of what happened here and how lucky you are to see it now.

Tom