Compiègne is a city best known for the signing of the ceasefires in 1918 and 1940. It is also one of the main historical residences of French kings.
The little Compiègne has witnessed epochal historical events since the Middle Ages. During the Merovingian and Carolingian times, knights rally here, and in 888 Odo, Count of Paris, was crowned King of the Franks. In 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by English and two centuries later, Maria of Medici was sent here for conspiracy.
In the 17th century, on the order of Louis XV, the Compiègne Palace was built in the city, which soon became one of the most important royal residences. Currently, restored, it houses the collection of the National Museum. Within the representative center, you can also see numerous city palaces, elegant tenement houses, the richly decorated Town Hall in Compiègne and the Church of Saint Jacques.
The most interesting, however, is the Compiègne Forest, the main attraction in the area. It was there, in a railway car, that the armistice, which in fact ended the First World War, was signed in 1918. In 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the same wagon to be brought from the museum so that the French would sign the armistice act in the fight against the Germans. It was a symbolic blurring of the disgrace for which Hitler considered the loss of World War I. Since the 1950s, in the Compiègne Forest, there has been a faithful copy of the wagon.
