Compiègne

The castle of Compiegne:

The Compiègne Castle (Château de Compiègne) was built by King Charles V, and was definitively “shaped” in the 18th century by Louis XV and Louis XVI. Louis XIV and Louis XV held large parties there.

Napoleon I and Napoleon III also held court in Compiegne. In WWI, the French headquarters was established here for a while. It is now a museum. The square in front of the castle is the starting location of the cycling classic Paris-Roubaix.

The center of Compiègne

The compact center of Compiegne where the castle is located also has a number of other (tourist) attractions. First, there is the cityhall on the central city square. The town hall has a Gothic façade and a striking clock tower. In the town hall is also the museum “De la Figurine Historique” situated. This shows, among other things, the Battle of Waterloo with tin soldiers.

On the Place du Palais once stood a castle that was mentioned in the sixth century. This was originally inhabited by a Merovingian kings, and later by Capeterian kings. St. Jakob's Church (Église St.-Jacques), 100 meters to the right of the town hall, is traditionally a stop on the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela. In the fourteenth century the construction stagnated by the Hundred Years War.

On May 23, 1430, Jeanne d'Arc entered through a small door to pray; this was the day before her arrest in Compiègne. Today this door has been closed now. Louis XV rebuilt the castle of Compiègne and also decorated the church. The church windows are set in in the nineteenth century and represent the main events of the city. Finally, on platform 1 of the train station a number of monuments can be seen as a reminder of the execution of tens of thousands of prisoners from camp "Royallieu". There are also two original (cattle) wagons.

Royallieu Camp / Memorial de l'internement et de la Deportation:

At about 2.5 kilometers to the south-west of the center is the nazi-concentration camp of Royallieu (German: Frontstalag 122). During WW2 this was one of the largest transit camps in the German occupied France. Some 54,000 Jews, resistance fighters, militant trade unionists, politicians and other persecuted people were imprisoned here.

About 50,000 of them were deported from Royallieu to concentration and extermination camps such as Auschwitz, Dachau, Mauthausen and Buchenwald. In Royallieu there was also the Jewish camp, "Kamp C", which was already a death camp because of the hunger and disease that prevailed there. A museum with a documentation center has been located on the site of Royallieu since 2008.

There are also some original camp buildings.

Compiegne forest (Clairiere de L'Armistice):

In the park in front of the castle, Napoleon I made for his bride Marie-Louise a gazebo more than a kilometer long. By the construction of the Avenue des Beaux-Monts, he had this park join the Forêt de Compiègne, a beautiful forest with mainly oak and beech trees. From Les Beaux-Monts one has beautiful views. In the middle of the forest lies the picturesque village of St.-Jean-aux-Bois. At Champlieu, on the southern edge of the forest, there are relics from Roman times.

In Pierrefonds, on the eastern edge of the forest, there is a large castle, built by Louis of Orléans (15th century). Cardinal de Richelieu had this castle dismantled; Napoleon III had it restored again by the famous architect Viollet-le-Duc in a very romantic and fairytale style. The walls are 38 meters high and 6 meters thick. Close to the castle is the Église St.-Sulpice with a choir from around 1100. Around Pierrefonds are some very picturesque lakes. One can make a beautiful trip from Compiègne from across the Beaux Monts and the Mont St.-Marc through the hamlets of Vivier-Frère-Robert and Vieux-Moulin along the river Rû de Berne to Pierrefonds. 

On 11 November 1918 at 5 o'clock in the night, the capitulation between the Western Allies and Germany was signed in a wagon at 8 kilometers from Compiegne in the "Compiegne" forest. The next day at 11 am the very humiliating warfare ended and the Great War came to an end. On 22 June 1940, Hitler had the car removed from the stable to allow the French leadership to undergo the same fate as the Germans 22 years earlier. The train wagon was later transferred to Berlin on 24 June 1940 by order of the nazi leader. This wagon was first exhibited for a while to the public in front of the Brandenburger Gate and later put on a sidetrack in various places.

The actual wagon would not survive the war. On the spot where the capitulations of Germany and France were signed, a replica has now been set up that you can visit.