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[Zrk2]

It turns out that there are still parts of France you can't enter because of munitions. It's estimated to take at least 300 years to fix, and has concentrations of arsenic and lead over 1000 time background. This is some serious shit.

[XXSockXX]

"Turns out" is a bit of an exaggeration, it's a well known fact that the whole Verdun area still has quite a few remains WW1. Been to Douaumont a couple of times, it's pretty impressive.
BTW on the German side of the border there are a few inaccessible areas too (because of WW2 though). Finding unexploded bombs or ammo during construction projects is quite common.

[Loud Whispers]

Yeah look up the iron harvest. Hell, I live in the most bombed London district, we had a fuckhueg german gift just removed after a digger dug into it (could've gone badly). There's also a big issue of Brits going to France to bring back munitions as souvenirs through the Eurostar. This has on occasion, included live historical shells.

In short, the Zone Rouge is a microcosm of battlefields frozen in time; the little-known but very real  “No Go Zone” of France. There’s a true story for you, FOX News.

ARTILLERY BARRAGE FIRED

[Zrk2]

In short, the Zone Rouge is a microcosm of battlefields frozen in time; the little-known but very real  “No Go Zone” of France. There’s a true story for you, FOX News.

ARTILLERY BARRAGE FIRED

I admit, I lel'd at it, too.

[Naryar]

Luckily, I live in a part of France where there wasn't much fighting in both world wars. Well, some resistance action, yes.

[Orange Wizard]

"Turns out" is a bit of an exaggeration, it's a well known fact that the whole Verdun area still has quite a few remains WW1.

"Well-known" is a bit of an exaggeration, too.

...

In any case, that's pretty interesting.

[Helgoland]

In the Eifel (small mountain range in the west of Germany) there's still loads of mines. The thing is, they're glass mines, meaning it's very hard to remove them. So we don't bother and simply put up warning signs
As Sock said though, unexploded bombs are a much bigger problem though.

[10ebbor10]

It turns out that there are still parts of France you can't enter because of munitions. It's estimated to take at least 300 years to fix, and has concentrations of arsenic and lead over 1000 time background. This is some serious shit.

Actually, you can enter them.

The Zone only prevents certain activities, such as habitation, farming or forestry. Kind of logic, since those are most disturbing for the soil. Tourism for example, is allowed (the french wiki has more info).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge   

So you know, so much for true story.

[Frumple]

In the Eifel (small mountain range in the west of Germany) there's still loads of mines. The thing is, they're glass mines, meaning it's very hard to remove them. So we don't bother and simply put up warning signs

I have to suddenly wonder, has anyone considered just throwing rocks at the area until stuff stops exploding? So long as there's nothing there you want standing, just set up a few dozen catapults and hurl stone at the joint until it's safe to walk around.

[10ebbor10]

Problem is, the older the mines or bombs are, the less reliable they get.

[Helgoland]

In the Eifel (small mountain range in the west of Germany) there's still loads of mines. The thing is, they're glass mines, meaning it's very hard to remove them. So we don't bother and simply put up warning signs

I have to suddenly wonder, has anyone considered just throwing rocks at the area until stuff stops exploding? So long as there's nothing there you want standing, just set up a few dozen catapults and hurl stone at the joint until it's safe to walk around.

If you mean the mines: Well, there's trees and mountains obstructing your rocks - that's the main reason nobody's removed them yet. In other terrain that was done pretty much immediately after the war - my grampa told a story once about a Polish guy living in the village who used to just burn old munitions. It didn't end well for him. And then there's the six 1946 deaths on our village's memorial: Kids who thought they found a ball...
If you mean the old bombs though, please bear in mind that the areas in question would be literally the most densely populated ones in the country: All major and most minor cities. Essentially you're saying we should bomb them again to remove the aftereffects of the last bombing campaign. Plus those bombs are usually buried deep in the ground...

[XXSockXX]

"Turns out" is a bit of an exaggeration, it's a well known fact that the whole Verdun area still has quite a few remains WW1.

"Well-known" is a bit of an exaggeration, too.

Well, it's pretty much what Verdun is known for around here (which admittedly isn't too far away).

If you mean the old bombs though, please bear in mind that the areas in question would be literally the most densely populated ones in the country: All major and most minor cities. Essentially you're saying we should bomb them again to remove the aftereffects of the last bombing campaign. Plus those bombs are usually buried deep in the ground...

Yeah, the problem is it's usually city centers that have the most unexploded bombs. You hear about a major evacuation because of one of these things every other year.
Where I grew up there are some restricted zones in the forests though, because of unexploded shells from WW2 battles.

[Zrk2]

"Turns out" is a bit of an exaggeration, it's a well known fact that the whole Verdun area still has quite a few remains WW1.

"Well-known" is a bit of an exaggeration, too.

Well, it's pretty much what Verdun is known for around here (which admittedly isn't too far away).

Exactly. I'm from Canada, and we're vaguely aware that there's still bombs out there to be removed in the cities, but I had no idea there were still such large parts of France that were essentially quarantined (although quarantined is a rather strong word for it).

[Loud Whispers]

Another cool tidbit comes from the invention of the tank in WWI. Designed by the Royal Navy and its admiralty, the idea was to create a land ship that could sail across no man's land and break the stalemate. Unfortunately, practicality is a thing, so tanks ended up taking more inspiration from tractors than battleships.
But tfw in an alternate universe there are steampunk landships sailing across the land

[darkrider2]

Another cool tidbit comes from the invention of the tank in WWI. Designed by the Royal Navy and its admiralty, the idea was to create a land ship that could sail across no man's land and break the stalemate. Unfortunately, practicality is a thing, so tanks ended up taking more inspiration from tractors than battleships.
But tfw in an alternate universe there are steampunk landships sailing across the land

Spoiler: relevant (click to show/hide)