Somewhat ashamedly, I have to admit I knew very little about the Great War, despite having a grandfather who fought in France and was gassed. I have done a lot of research into my father's service in the Pacific in WWII but remained ignorant of WWI.
A year and a half ago, I began to look into it and a year ago August my wife and I went on a "Doughboy Tour" along with 36 other (mostly we were grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and even one elderly gal whose father fought in the war). Got to visit a couple of the places where he saw action, we visited several of the American cemeteries and a couple French cemeteries and German cemeteries. Also visited the In Flanders Field Museum and the Menin Gate memorial in Belgium. Went to where Sgt York (though a corporal at the time) and his few men captured all the Germans. I think I have posted before, but they have a ceremony at the Menin Gate and the buglers sound the Last Post every day at 8pm, and have had since 1928 other than the years of Nazi occupation. Engraved in the walls are the names of just over 54,000 soldiers who died and were never found, or identified, nor received a proper burial.
I plan to go again in 2021, there was just so much to see and we were there right at two weeks. Reading about these places and events, or watching videos about them is amazing, but actually being in the spot that history was made took it many more levels higher. Seeing the deep holes in the ground where a mine was detonated (each would hold many pickup trucks) and walking through Belleau Wood with shell holes everywhere amongst the massive trees were things I will never forget.
I found the French and Belgian people extremely nice and they haven't forgotten WWI. Banners everywhere, people visiting the memorials, and we ran into tour groups from all over. The only children participating with a large tour group were some Aussies.
At one cemetery, the superintendent told us French families adopt a grave and have to do two things per year to retain that status (I forget what they are required to do) and there was a waiting list. At another cemetery, the superintendent told of a call he received from someone at the local school. He sought permission to use the chapel so that his students could come and read out loud the name of every American buried there. Their idea was that even though they had been gone for almost 100 years (at the time of the request) they could bring back their memory if only briefly by calling out their name. As I remember it was over 10,000 names so it must have been at the Meuse-Argonne cemetery.
For history buffs, and especially for those who had a relative in a war, I suggest going on a tour.