SomTervo

... beaches etc., whereas the South is better for weather and 'holiday'ing. But we all want the history. Saw some incredible forts with histories often dating back to nearly BCE: this one and this one were highlights;

http://tinyurl.com/ca97dzl

http://tinyurl.com/montmedy

That's awesome. My great-grandfather fought at Vimy Ridge, which isn't far (speaking as someone who's country spans the Pacific to the Atlantic to the Arctic) from where it sounds like you were. For me, it might as well be another world, it'd be amazing to see some of that stuff first hand.

Yeah man, if you ever get a chance to go there (or even Europe in general to see historic things), do it. Nothing quite like standing in the most fortified part of a castle, looking at a chunk of rock which was first used around 200AD by the Romans as a watch point, and just thinking that in that very space, nearly two millenia ago, people would sit there and look out of the peepholes, just as you are looking in.