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Practicalities
France > North > Flemish cities > Arras and the Somme battlefields > Arras > Practicalities

From the gare SNCF it's a ten-minute walk up rue Gambetta then rue Désiré Delansorne, to the tourist office, located in the Hôtel de Ville on place des Héros (May–Sept Mon–Sat 9am–6.30pm, Sun 10am–1pm & 2.30–6.30pm; Oct–April Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 2–6pm, Sun 10am–12.30pm & 3–6.30pm; tel 03.21.51.26.95); the tourist office is worth consulting for details of transport and tours of local battlefields. To reach the Vimy memorial, you can also rent a car from Hertz, bd Carnot (tel 03.21.23.11.14), or Euroto, 15 av Paul-Michonneau (tel 03.21.55.05.05).

There are two good, inexpensive hotels in the town centre: the Diamant, 5 place des Héros (tel 03.21.71.23.23, fax 03.21.71.84.13; €40–55), a comfortable, reliable two-star; and Hôtel des Trois Luppars, 47 Grand' Place (tel 03.21.60.02.03, fax 03.21.24.24.80; €40–55), a friendly family-run place with modern facilities in a characterful old building. For a more luxurious night, go to the Univers, a beautiful former monastery round a courtyard in place de la Croix-Rouge, near the Abbaye St-Vaast (tel 03.21.71.34.01, fax 03.21.71.41.42; €55–70; restaurant €18.30–42). The newly modernized, well-positioned hostel is at 59 Grand' Place (tel 03.21.22.70.02, fax 03.21.07.46.15; closed Dec–Jan; €8.40, breakfast and bedding extra, cardholders only). A campsite (tel 03.21.71.55.06; closed Oct–March) lies 1km out of town on the Bapaume road.

Restaurants worth trying include La Rapière, 44 Grand' Place, with excellent regional food and menus at €13, €18 or €26; and, for a splurge, the gourmet La Faisanderie, across the square (from €23). Pizzerias abound: two particularly good ones are on rue Petits-Viéziers – Le Petit Théâtre and Aux Petits-Viéziers – while Le Palerme at 50 Grand' Place also serves pasta. Nearer the station at 26 bd de Strasbourg is a beautifully old-fashioned brasserie, La Coupole (closed Sat lunch), adorned with Mucha-like stained glass; seafood and traditional brasserie dishes loom large in the €20 and €29 menus.

Les Grandes Arcades on Grand' Place serves delicious regional food, including the local speciality andouillette, or tripe sausage (tel 03.21.23.30.89; menus €13, €23 and €34), and you'll find a good fromagerie, Jean-Claude Leclercq, at 39 place des Héros (closed Mon). Saturdays are the best day for food and wine, when the squares are taken up with a morning market, and Resto Cave, an extensive sixteenth-century wine cellar run by the delightfully large and quirky proprietor of the Trois Luppars, is open for the sale of fine wines (10am–1pm & 3–8pm).


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