After crossing the channel to Calais, begin your Champagne Battlefields tour by visiting the memorial park in Vimy ridge, the site of the huge tactical victory for the Canadian Corps on the opening day of the battle of Arras. After paying homage to these brave soldiers, check into the 4* Hotel de l’Univers, where you will be staying for the night.

On day two of your Champagne Battlefields tour, head for the Champagne region stopping en route at the famous Thiepval memorial. This memorial to the Missing of the Somme bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men who lost their lives in the Somme region before March 1918 and have no known grave. You will then drive across the former battlefields of the Somme to the Museum of the Great War in Peronne. Here, you will learn about the First World War in a social context through the lives of the combatants and the civilians.

Once in Champagne, we will arrange for a two night Champagne break to include a tour and tastings at your favourite large prestigious Champagne House in Reims (options include Veuve Clicquot, GH Mumm, Pommery and Taittinger), and return transfers out to the vineyards for a tour as the guests of a small, family-run Champagne House. Here, you are likely to meet the Champagne-maker himself and see firsthand the fascinating Champagne-making process from vine to bottle. In the evening, a three-course Champagne tasting dinner will be served in a cosy restaurant located ten minutes’ walk from the main square, where each course will be accompanied by a different Champagne.

After checking out on day four of your Champagne Battlefields tour, and before making your way back to the UK via Eurotunnel, stop off at the Caverne du Dragon for a guided tour. This 16th Century stone quarry cave became a strategic military location during the First World War and you will see for yourself the sombre reality of what war was like 15 metres underground. You will also have entry to the on-site museum.