The people of Arras call their citadel la belle inutile, the beautiful useless one, and they say it with affection. Vauban built it in the late seventeenth century, after Louis XIV took Artois from Spain, as part of the chain of fortresses meant to lock France's northern border. Its star-shaped ramparts, bastions and moats are textbook Vauban, but the border moved north before the fortress ever saw a serious siege, hence the nickname. It is one of the twelve sites grouped as the Fortifications of Vauban on the UNESCO list since 2008. Its later history is darker: during the Second World War, the Germans executed resistance fighters in the moat, and a memorial there lists their names.
The town centre is a short ride away and far from useless. The Grand-Place and the Place des Héros form two vast squares lined with tall Flemish baroque gabled houses on arcades, and the town hall's belfry, part of the UNESCO Belfries of Belgium and France, rises above them. Much of it was destroyed in the First World War and rebuilt faithfully afterwards. Beneath the squares lie the boves, old chalk quarries and cellars, and on the edge of town the Wellington Quarry tells the story of the New Zealand tunnellers who dug a network of tunnels to hide thousands of soldiers before the Battle of Arras in 1917. Arras was also the birthplace of Robespierre.
The Artois countryside is open and rolling, with big fields of wheat and beet, and the landscape is scattered with the war cemeteries of the Western Front, white headstones in neat rows. Vimy Ridge, with the towering Canadian memorial, is a short ride north, and the roads there are fast, straight and windy. Traffic around Arras is moderate, with roundabouts and ring roads, and the town centre has cobbles in places.
Arras has fuel, supermarkets and a good choice of restaurants and brasseries around the squares. Try the local andouillette, a sausage made with tripe, if you are brave, or a plate of moules-frites. The sweet speciality is the cœur d'Arras, a heart-shaped gingerbread biscuit, and the region's beers, many brewed by small producers in northern France, are excellent.