Armistice Clearing

We didn’t plan to go very far today, but chose to motor a few km around the bend to Choisy au Bac where we could base ourselves for a few days in order to explore the sights of Compeigne and the forests which surround it.

In the afternoon we cycled to the site where the 1918 and 1940 Armistices were signed in a train carriage in the forest glade.

There is a museum there now, hidden away amongst the trees. A replica of the train carriage stands in the centre of the museum, surrounded by stereoscopic viewers which show haunting images from the battlefields.

But the first thing you see as you arrive at the site is a strikingly symbolic statue which made Hitler’s blood boil. It is a monument funded by public subscription and shows the German eagle impaled on a sword.

Walk on a little further and the trees melt away to reveal a vast clearing with two train tracks running through it. These tracks are separated by a giant granite stone and an engraving which translates as, “Here on the 11^th of November perished the criminal pride of the German Empire defeated by the free people whom it set out to enslave.” The French, unlike the British, do not hold back when they remember the wars. Everywhere we go we see memorial plaques to fallen soldiers and civilians, which give details of exactly what happened and who was to blame.

Lobelia’s leisurely pace means that we have meandered through the battlegrounds and visited countless villages and towns which were the unfortunate buffer zone around Paris. I have visited this area before and known the history. However, previous visits have been made by car and distances and the sense of lost communities have not been fully appreciated until now. A number of villages were never rebuilt after the war but their names stay on maps today in a gesture of remembrance.