About Us
Meet your hosts at Les Alouettes WW1 Guided Battlefield Tours
Hello, we are Vic and Diane, your WW1 battlefield guides who offer a personalised, tailor made tour of these sacred Great War battlefields. We are credited guides with the Somme Tourism Board and are members of the Somme Battlefield Partner label.
We wish to share with you our knowledge and our passion in this unique period in history which was ignited initially by a remarkable Great War veteran, Joe Beard, a former Sergeant with the 1st Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
We initially came to visit the Great War battlefields in the early 1990s and decided that after a decade of travelling here that the pull was too strong and so we moved over to the Somme and started our company in 2004. Also before we moved to France we ran the East Midlands branch of the Western Front Association for over ten years.
My previous career was in journalism and my wife Diane’s was in Accountancy but history was always a passion of ours. We have been so lucky in being able to pursue this different career pattern, a subject that we are so passionate about.
Soldiers of all wars often said that a battlefield was a confusing place. That can be true too for the battlefield visitor! We have been visiting these battlefields for over 35 years and there are few places on the Western Front unknown to us. The majority of the 2,000-plus books on our shelves devoted to the Great War have been read or re-read.
Visits with Great War veterans
Our greatest privilege was knowing some Great War veterans. We spent much time with them and visited together their former haunts on the Western Front. During our tours, their remarkable stories, which we were told first hand, are recounted on our tours. A few even stayed here at Les Alouettes B&B on the Somme.
Personalised Pilgrimage Great War tours
A wealth of knowledge of the battlefields has been acquired as well as experience helping others get the most from their visits. A particular strength is offering personalised tours for visitors and literally following in the footsteps of their ancestors. We specialise in researching the Official histories, the War Diaries, and soldier records to pinpoint where they served.
We also offer guided tours focusing on the Commonwealth countries, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and in particular, personalised Australian battlefield tours. Also, our Allies the French where we take our tours to Verdun and tours to discover the 1918 American battlefields.
A recent tour package we have put together is a visit to discover the Italian Isonzo battlefield of Caporetto.
Les Alouettes B&B and Fairbanks (self-catering) Accommodation
As well as offering bespoke tailor-made WW1 guided tours we also offer either self-catering or B&B accommodation in the heart of the Somme 1916 battlefields, please see our website www.lesalouettes.net Often our visitors combine a stay with us as well as a guided tour.