There are some rooms (the dining room in Haworth Parsonage where the Bronte sisters wrote is another) that make you stand in wonder at what once happened there. This is Alan Turing's office at Bletchley Park... what extraordinary things went on in this ordinary-looking space?

The German immigrant city of Berlin, in Ontario, Canada, changed its name to Kitchener because of First World War anti-German feeling in 1916. This bust of Kaiser Wilhelm 1 was thrown in the lake. It was rescued but later stolen - and it hasn't been seen since.

One thing that makes Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries special is that each one is different. What makes Railway Hollow, on the Somme, different is the lack of flowers. The land was, and is, too prone to flooding for the usual planting. As you can see in the gateway.

One blessing of living in the UK is that we don't generally get to see a lot of these signs on street corners.

And those murals are not all comic-related.

Cities are often known for one industry, so when that industry dies, the city struggles. But sometimes they just develop. Angouleme was a printing city, but it reinvented itself as the capital of comic-books, a popular medium in France. That led to it becoming a city of murals.

The town of Albert, in the Somme, was totally wrecked in the First World War. After the war, it was helped in its recovery by "godmothers" (marraines): Bordeaux in France, Birmingham in England, and Tien Tsin in China.

I expect you've heard of nominative determinism? It seems poor Paul never stood a chance.

Les Forces françaises de l’intérieur (FFI) was a Resistance group that played a key role in the liberation of France from the Nazis. Many members paid with their lives - including 19-year-old André.

"They were without uniforms and without arms. They were martyred and shot." All over south west France there are memorials like this one in Ribérac to the civilian victims of the Nazis in 1944.

And the road at the bottom of our valley is the one along which the guillotine trundled on its cart.

The priest tried to calm the mob by offering wine, but that just inflamed them further. Finally, they throw his half-dead body on a bonfire, where – allegedly – the mayor told them to “eat him if you want”. The hysterical crowd is alleged to have caught his dripping fat on bread and eaten it. /3

France was at war with Prussia and drunken revellers, already angered by a bad summer for farmers, mistook de Moneys (pictured) for a Prussian sympathiser. They pursued him around the village, beating him and subjecting him to horrendous injuries. /2

Beware the hot weather… Alain de Moneys, who once owned our French house, set off for a local village fête in the hot summer of 1870. The day would end in disaster: he would be dead, after being tortured, and Hautefaye would forever be known as the Village of Cannibals. /1

So many Sheffield men died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme that when this memorial was unveiled at Serre in 1923, it was said that “among the most pathetic incidents of the proceedings were the march past of the small number of survivors”.

Just finished this excellent book by Tom Isitt. I'm no cyclist (well, I've got an electric bike that comes out occasionally), but Tom's description of an endurance pro bike race across the First World War battlefields in 1919 is gripping.

Sometimes war graves don't look like war graves. I've been baffled by the @CWGC sign on the gates of Balmerino cemetery, Fife: I couldn't find a war grave. After corresponding with the CWGC, I now know this is the war grave. No Portland headstone, but a war grave nevertheless.

Pleased with my 10-euro vide-grenier (car boot sale) buy in Brantôme this morning... a souvenir letter rack with pictures of the ruined Cloth Hall in Ypres and the then-new Menin Gate.

Somme 110: The Devonshire Cemetery, one of the most poignant on the Western Front, was established 110 years ago today in the trench from which the men attacked on July 1. A stone tablet bears the legend, originally on a wooden board: The Devonshires held this trench, the Devonshires hold it still.

Somme 110: The tragic results of 1 July 1916 are there for all to see. Here is Clarence Armstrong, from Nottingham, who was just 17 when he died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The hidden inscription in Gommecourt Wood New Cemetery reads: DARING AND BRAVE HE NOW LIES IN A HERO'S GRAVE.

Somme 110: This week I have been remembering Jack Day, my wife's grandfather, who fought on the Somme (and, later, Passchendaele). These were his thoughts 110 years ago today, on the second day of the Battle of the Somme.

The first day of the Battle of the Somme, 110 years ago today, was a disaster, with nearly 20,000 British troops dead and twice as many wounded. But there were some successes: like Montauban, which was captured by soldiers from Manchester and Liverpool.

The land behind this trench is now the Sheffield Memorial Park, owned by the city of Sheffield, and it includes memorials to the Pals from there, Barnsley, Accrington, Burnley and Bradford, among others.

Somme 110: The first day of the Battle of the Somme was the worst in British army history. Pals battalions from across the north of England went out of this trench towards Serre (trees on the horizon). Most got no further than the cemetery - halfway - and they're still there.

Countdown to Somme 110: Not many people know exactly what a grandparent was doing 110 years ago. Thanks to official war diaries, my wife knows that, 110 years ago tomorrow, her grandpa was shelling German lines on the first day of the Battle of Somme.

Countdown to Somme 110: The Hauntings is a sculpture by Somerset artist Jo Oliver, symbolising "the common man" affected by war. After visiting Ypres, this huge metal figure is now in the centre of Albert, on the Somme.

Countdown to Somme 110: When we think of the Great War, it's usually mud that comes to mind. But the Battle of the Somme began on July 1 - a fine summer's day (even if it wasn't as hot as the week we've just been experiencing).

Countdown to Somme 110: The French and British had been facing the Germans in their trenches since 1914. This video was filmed on the German front line in Gommecourt. The British were roughly in line with the pylons. A gentle evening stroll now, but deadly in 1916.

Countdown to Somme 110: The Golden Virgin of Albert was shining brightly in the scorching sunshine this week. For anyone unaware of the history of the Virgin, this account from the memoirs of my wife's artilleryman grandfather explains it.

Countdown to Somme 110: Next Wednesday is the 110th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, and we will no doubt be hearing about the British Army's efforts on that day. But we must never forget the many more French soldiers who died defending their country.