Today’s episode is located somewhere at the French border...
...in a massive bunker amid a military prohibited area.
At sunset we stole into this tremendous complex.
Even after several hours in the underground we hadn’t seen everything.
This place truly made its presence felt.
It’s still day four of our urbex road trip.
After we had spent several hours wandering around in a huge mine around noon...
...our friends from Luxembourg wanted to show us a bunker in France now.
So we were heading underground again.
We entered this immense facility through the munitions entrance.
Immediately we realized that nearly everything was painted black.
The walls, the ceiling, the floor...
This blackness swallowed the light of our flashlights.
Look here.
What's that?
It's like soot. It seems this place was gutted.
It's everywhere down here.
Indeed.
The soot layer is attributable to a huge fire.
In 1998 the French army abandoned this bunker.
Copper and scrap metal thieves used this situation and looted the whole site.
Probably every cable was torched in addition to burn off the insulation.
The soot layer covers the whole bunker.
Either...
...it's cool street art in a bunker without any graffiti...
...or it's more likely to be a spiderweb...
...that was burned and covered in soot.
It's definitely part of the wall.
Looks dank.
What does it say? - I have no idea.
*trying to read*
Yeah, I don't know.
Next to this former guardroom there are several additional apparatuses and furnishings in the whole site...
...from the time when this bunker was still active.
We could experience history first-hand...
...sort of.
For example you could still recognize the former briefing room really good.
At least as impressive were the leftovers of the generators.
It’s possible to find diesel engines which were pretty modern back then.
Where? - Here. - This one? - Yep.
This one? It's the warning bell? - Yes.
Was probably really loud down here.
Most certainly. - Where's the warning bell? - Right here.
Behind there is another one.
Looks like a firearm locker.
Is that possible?
Look how many layers this door has.
And here's an exit.
What? - We found another access.
Can you go outside? - Of course.
You can get a breath of fresh air.
Sweet.
Behind a double door system we accidently found another access: the personnel entry.
It's dark outside already? - Sure!
GPS is confused right now.
Where are we? - We're right here.
Phone's going haywire here.
As it turned out over the course of our exploration there are some other entrances, too.
...distributed in the tunnels stretching around 2.5 kilometers.
As you can see on this map.
So a huge march in a depth of maybe 30 meters was still lying ahead of us.
This bunker is one of the largest artillery fortifications of the Maginot line.
This defensive system along the French border to Belgium, Luxembourg, ...
...Germany and Italy was built between 1930 and 1940 to fight off attacks from the bordering countries.
This facility went active in 1935 and involves nine combat blocks altogether with different kinds of guns.
The garrison was composed of 782 soldiers including 26 officers.
I think over here you can see the old filters. Yes.
Somewhere down here you can find a room full of unused filters.
For real? - Yep.
They're like brand-new.
An orientation guide system at the walls is stretching for miles in the bunker.
It’s an aid to orientation, so you don’t get lost in the tunnels full of nooks and crannies.
Hey, over here you can see beds looking factory-fresh.
The beds? - Yes!
Ah, over here. Sick!
Here too.
There are even small desks. How cute.
It has no idea what's happening. Living in the underground for years...
...and all of the sudden something is grabbing it and there are a thousand lights or so.
Where did you find the frog?
Over there is some kind of drainage.
But it was caught by a stream.
So are you going to abandon it here? - Or will we rescue it?
Bring it back to the fresh air?
Of course we brought the frog back to the fresh air...
...while we went deeper and deeper into the pitch-black bunker.
After a while we found the kitchen area.
It says: Mixed stove 1, mixed stove 2.
Here: Stove for pastries.
And here you have the deep fat fryers.
And "fourneau"?
"Fourneau" meens something like heating stove.
Like a fireplace.
To keep this place warm. It was probably hard to heat this site.
Maybe they just meant the exhaust hood. It's possible but it doesn't have to be like it.
The main hall of the bunker is traversed by railways.
We sit, you push.
The older ones are sitting, the younger ones are pushing.
Feels like you're Indiana Jones, right?
Over here you see the locking cylinder.
Most certainly it was thicker back then. With a shell covering it.
Maybe you can still find it down here.
With that the lubricant was pumped through the facility with a lot of pressure.
The long hydraulic hoses shouldn't be clogged.
What were the hydraulic hoses for?
To control doors and stuff from one central office.
What's that? - A taser flashlight.
This place saw only little action during World War II...
...but due to its size it was repaired and retained in service after the war.
During the Cold War it found a new use as a military command center...
...first for NATO and later for the French Army.
In the 1980s the French army modernized this artillery fortification and upgraded it to a hardened underground command post.
During that process both main entrances were completely rebuilt.
Massive concrete walls were supposed to protect the site from a nearby nuclear blast.
The barracks and the ammunition magazine were reconstructed to offices.
You could drink that if you're really thirsty.
It's probably really cold. - Yep.
Around three degrees celsius.
Looks like a prison cell from here. Is it one or what?
'Sup? Yes, looks like a prison cell.
Finally we found the armored turrets with the huge propulsion machineries and the small rooms for the gunners.
It's kinda narrow.
Sick.
A gun turret...
Cool, right? - Awesome.
Pretty small but still awesome.
There are even pedals over here.
Exhausted we headed back.
...from the one end of the bunker to the other one.
Altogether every one of us walked like six kilometers in this site.
...within three and a half hours.
So we spent over eight hours of this day in the underground.
Although we were rewarded with a memorable adventure.
...and that’s worth something.
