Circular route starting from Arracourt via Xanrey and Rechicourt

The walk starts at Arracourt church. Parking is available on the grass to the side of the church, on Rue de l’Église.

(S/E) Opposite the church, turn left onto the D914, leave the D23 on your right, walk past the Château and cross the D914 carefully to walk on the left-hand verge so you are facing the same direction as the traffic. Walk past the Vauthier boundary stone.

(1) After the bridge over the Loutre Noire, carefully cross the D914 again to join the small road on the right (D23d), heading towards Juvrecourt. Walk through the village along La Grande Rue, passing a fountain, the church and another fountain in succession.

(2) At the end of the street, turn right onto Rue de Vic towards Xanrey (D23c). At the end of the bend, turn left onto the D23d and head towards the village of Xanrey.

(3) After passing the church, turn right at the corner of the Town Hall onto Rue du Gueoir. At the end of the street, take the track on the right and follow it to a stony track.

(4) Turn left, keep left and continue straight on until you reach a Y-junction.

(5) Turn left and, at the T-junction, turn onto the field path on the right. Join a small road.

(6) Follow it to the right towards the village of Réchicourt-la-Petite.

(7) At the crossroads in the village, continue straight on the D2i towards Bure. 20 m before the weather station, on the left in the field, there is a buried bunker; looking into the distance, two other bunkers are visible.

(8) Turn around; on the left, there is a bench and a viewpoint.

(7) Turn left into Rue de Bezange.

(9) At the end of the street, take the Grande Rue D23 on the left, pass in front of the church and reach a fork in the road.

(10) Take the track on the left, then look left towards the weather station in the fields where there are two blockhouses; on the right, in the corner, there is another blockhouse; and behind you, in the field on the other side of the road, there is a blockhouse. Continue along the track to the right and along the field path. Climb up to the American Memorial to the First World War.

(11) Turn back to return to the junction and read the information sign,

(10) Continue left onto the D23 towards Arracourt. Join the D914 and turn left to return to the church (S/E).

On leaving Arracourt, on the left on the D914, there is a Vauthier marker marking the front line on 18 July 1918.

The village of Juvrecourt, a border village during the period 1870–1918, was largely destroyed during the 1914–1918 war.

The village of Xanrey, a German village during the period 1870–1918 and a strategic German village during the 1914–1918 war.

The village of Réchicourt-la-Petite, a village on the front line between 1914 and 1918 and the site of a tank battle in 1945.

In Réchicourt-la-Petite, the shiny sphere visible from afar is a Météo France station used to measure rainfall for atmospheric monitoring. At its base is a 1914–18 blockhouse and a viewpoint.

Leaving Réchicourt, on the small road, you can see a row of buried blockhouses from the 1914–1918 period in the fields; one must imagine the connecting trenches.

In Réchicourt-la-Petite, in the open countryside on the way to Arracourt, at a place called Les Hauts de Ruelles, stands a First World War memorial dedicated to the first three Americans to die on French soil during the night of 2 to 3 November 1917. They belonged to the^2nd Battalion of the^16th US Infantry^Regiment .