Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park & Citadelle Ramparts Walk
Arras's 17th-century Vauban citadel is ringed by a remarkable green belt of star-shaped moats, earthwork ramparts and wildflower meadows that locals use as a daily park — yet it barely registers on most tourist itineraries. The circular walk around the outer fortifications takes about an hour and delivers a completely different, unhurried side of the city.
Walking the Vauban fortifications
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban designed the Arras citadel in 1668 for Louis XIV, and the geometric earthworks — bastions, ravelins, dry moats — survive in remarkably complete condition. The outer promenade path runs for roughly 3.5 km through a corridor of mature lime trees, with views back over the star-shaped plan that make Vauban's military geometry suddenly legible.
In spring the moat banks are carpeted with ox-eye daisies and wild orchids. Herons fish the reed-fringed water channels, and kestrels hunt the open grassland of the glacis. It is the kind of urban nature walk that feels genuinely wild despite being ten minutes from the town centre.
The citadel interior and memorial
The citadel itself is an active French Army base and access to the interior is restricted, but guided visits are organised by the tourist office on selected dates (usually the first Sunday of each month in summer). The visit includes the 17th-century chapel, the Arsenal building and the deeply moving execution post where 217 French Resistance members were shot by German forces between 1941 and 1944.
The Memorial and Museum of the Resistance and Deportation (Mémorial des Fusillés) adjacent to the citadel is free to enter and provides essential historical context. Allow at least 45 minutes here before or after the ramparts walk.
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