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Notre Dame de Lorette, also known as Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the world's largest French military cemetery.[1] It is the name of a ridge, basilica, and French national cemetery northwest of Arras at the village of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire. The high point of the hump-backed ridge stands 165 metres high and – with Vimy Ridge – utterly dominates the otherwise flat Douai plain and the town of Arras

Inaugurated in 1925, it commemorates the thousands of dead fighters on one of the most disputed battlefields of the First World War between October 1914 and September 1915. About 45,000 fighters rest there, half of them in individual graves. The site, including the cemetery, the basilica, the lantern tower and the museum, has an area of more than 25 hectares. It is the largest French military necropolis. On the occasion of the centenary of the Great War, November 11, 2014, is inaugurated an international memorial with the names of 600,000 soldiers who fell on the soil of the North and Pas-de-Calais between 1914 and 1918. It is called Ring of Memory and located on the edge of the hill of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. Since June 9, 2015, Lens' 14 - 18 War and Peace History Center retraces chronologically and thematically the events of the Great War in the departments of North and Pas-de-Calais. This interpretation center offers a complete and synthetic view of the battles in French Flanders and Artois. The battle of Notre-Dame de Lorette and the battles on Souchez's lock are particularly highlighted.

The French innovated as to the choice of emblems for each soldier: Latin crosses for Christians, steles with inscription in Hebrew for the Israelites or in Arabic for the Muslims but also - and this is the novelty in French military cemeteries - steles without any inscription for agnostic soldiers and free thinkers. At the far end, behind the basilica, a square is reserved for Muslim soldiers (called “the Muslim square”): the 576 steles are slightly offset from the general alignment to Mecca.

The religious influences of this site are that it advocates a respect how between all religions. The freedom fighters who fell in battle come from many different religious denominations. Jews, Catholics, Muslims but also agnostics fought for the same cause, and this is how this site was erected, in order to respect and perpetrate this respect, and especially the equalities between men, between soldiers whatever their religious beliefs. These monuments have been sources for generations of respect between religions.

The students could enjoy visits of the memorial of Vimy. They can make a direct visit which can be made by guides, and they also can make a classroom activity which are often made by the colleges and high schools of the region.