Like most people, I studied the First World War at school – but the true extent of the losses suffered was vividly seen on a tour of the Western Front.

Seeing pictures in books, watching documentaries and films or reading textbooks is nothing compared to visiting the battle sites and standing on the ground where the soldiers slept, fought and died.

Around 10 million were killed during the four years of the Great War. This includes more than one million French fatalities, around 700,000 British and more than two million German troops perished.

France saw around 11% of its population killed or wounded.

This year marks 100 years since the war broke out and many museums, memorial parks and cemeteries across France will hold special services, events and parades to honour the fallen, the wounded and the missing.

Earlier this year, I visited several of the sites to see what visitors are being offered.

My first stop was at a new museum – due to open in July – and cemetery paying respect to the Australian and British soldiers who died in the Battle of Fromelles, in northern France, in 1916.

The cemetery was built for the 250 bodies which were discovered in a mass grave in nearby Pheasant Wood in 2009. The bodies were exhumed and, using DNA samples, an astonishing 126 of them have been identified.

They were laid to rest and the museum overlooking the site tells the story of the battle.

South of Fromelles, in Arras, lies the Wellington Quarry, an underground chamber used by 20,000 British soldiers and New Zealand tunnellers to prepare for the 1917 Battle of Arras – a joint Anglo-French push against the Germans.

My time in the cold chalk quarry, which lies 20 metres underground, stood out as it is such a different experience to visiting an open battlefield or museum. Just from walking through the tunnels you get a small glimpse of what life would have been like for a soldier living there prior to the battle. I then headed to the Vimy Ridge Canadian National Memorial Park and Monument.

The 107-hectare park, looked after by the Canadian government, overhangs the Artois plain. The land is still dented by craters and lined with the trenches created during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a military engagement fought as part of the Battle of Arras.

The ridge was successfully taken from entrenched German troops but it came at a high cost, as thousands of Canadians died.

The grand white monument, designed by Walter Seymour Allward, pays tribute to 11,285 Canadian soldiers lost on French ground during the war. Everything from its size to its design make this monument a must-see.

Other must-sees include Seclin Fort, a huge structure used by the allies as a recruitment centre before the war, and Notre Dame de Lorette, in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire – the largest of the French war cemeteries – is the final resting place for 40,000 French troops.

Over the next four years France is expecting thousands of visitors. My advice: make sure you’re one of them.

• Sam’s trip was funded by Nord Tourism, Pas de Calais tourism, Aisne Tourisme and Somme Tourism. See www.greatwar1418.eu
• Eurostar operates up to nine daily services from London St Pancras to Lillecorr, with return fares starting at £69. See eurostar.com
• The Remembrance Trails pinpoint the sites and memorials which encapsulate the events that took place in Northern France between 1914 and 1918. See www.remembrancetrails-northernfrance.com
• The Battle of Fromelles Museum is expected to open to the public on Friday, July 18. See www.musee-bataille-fromelles.fr
• The Wellington Quarry, in Arras, offers guided tours for up to 17 people at a time. For more information see www.explorearras.com; for accommodation options at the Holiday Inn see www.holidayinn-arras.com
• Memorial events in the Aisne area of France in 2014 will be held during August, September, October and December. For a full list go to www.greatwarjourneys.com