Visiting, lecturing and touring have taught me a lot about American involvement in the First and Second World Wars. But my interest is not in war in and of itself, let alone the range of a 75 mm field gun vs. a 155 mm howitzer. What I’m especially curious about is the mindset of the contemporary American traveler. I’m interested in understanding how Americans of different backgrounds relate to their/our own history in France and, more importantly, how that reveals a sense of their individual and our collective place in the world. The First and Second World Wars are significant steps in that history and that place. But I am not a war buff. I am not a history buff. What I am is an American France travel buff. So I would be remiss not to visit American-related and other war sights and to try to understand how and why they came about and what they may signify today.

Yet I recognize that the vast majority of Americans of the 21st century have scarce interest in the First World War—and that despite the spring of 2017 marking the centennial of our entrance into the war and hence of the beginning of the so-called American Century.

Some historical events of 1917: The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6; General John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary corps arrived in Boulogne-sur-Mer on June 13; the first major contingent of American forces arrived in France at Saint Nazaire on June 26; American troops marched down the Champs-Elysées in Paris on July 4, and that same day Pershing visited Lafayette’s tomb in Picpus Cemetery.

As I write today, however, one hundred years later, Americans, in their vast majority, whether homebound or travel bound, as well as our elected officials, show little to no interest in the centennial. (We do actually have a national World War One Centennial Commission.) Not that every anniversary needs marking, but there are anniversaries that are uncanny reminders of where we are today and of the decisions and worldviews that we hold. The current centennial is one of them. The causes of WWI, the great debates about international intervention of a century ago and our eventual entrance into the war on the side of France and Great Britain, the development of our military and of our military industry, our role in the conflict’s military outcome and in its final treaty: all of those are echoed in debates and decisions today.

But examining history is not our national strongpoint. For some it may even be anti-American. Furthermore, between the America First attack on science, public education and critical thinking, on the one hand, and by the me-first sense that since Teddy Roosevelt shot game and I want to protect big game and since Woodrow Wilson was a bigot then I’ve got nothing to learn from their points of view, on the other hand, there isn’t much daylight for a national history lesson.

Personally, I prefer having a 13-year-old tell me that history is boring than an adult tell me that it doesn’t matter, because I can then tell a story and show a sight to the 13-year-old to spark interest whereas the adult will dig in to ill-informed convictions like trench warfare.

Nevertheless, despite our national aversion to history, we are very attracted to trends. Knowing and taking part in trends is important to us, even without understanding that they are trends since doing so would involve a minimum of critical thinking. Luckily, then, travel is frequently marked by trends.

We’ll always have Paris, of course, but other destinations that Americans select by broad measure in France shift from time to time. A destination will stand out on the map for the short- or medium-term thanks to some well-placed articles and advertisement, famous visitors, a big book or especially a big movie. Images of Ronald Reagan at Point du Hoc 1984, Bill Clinton in the Normandy American Cemetery 1994 or Saving Private Ryan 1998 may inspire thoughts of visiting Normandy some day.

France Revisited doesn’t have the pretension of influencing trends in tourism any more than we do of following them, but we do pride ourselves on helping to fill in the gaps left by other publications. So while awaiting to the trends set in motion by a blockbuster WWI movie, you can read archived articles about Quentin Roosevelt, “the most famous American killed during WWI,” about Belleau Wood and the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, about Chateau Thierry’s bond with the U.S., and about the American Escadrille Lafayette Memorial near Paris.

More articles about WWI sights, American-related and other, will appear on France Revisited in the coming months, written not by a war buff but by an American France travel buff. In the meantime, my travel research is well underway. Recently, shortly before the first round of the French presidential election, while touring Meuse, Lorraine (northeastern France), I took a snapshot of a desolate corner of the village of Hattonchâtel.

Desolate but very much alive, as the fresh flag and pole and newly pasted and defaced election posters demonstrate. I’m guessing that the posters were slashed by a fan of Philippe Poutou, candidate of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, NPA, whose face remains intact. The slasher may not be difficult to find since Poutou received only 13 votes out of the 967 voters here and in the surrounding 6 villages. Where do their sympathies lie? See here.

Visible behind the posters is one of Hattonchâtel’s scant medieval remnants, an arch that is part of the old entrance gate to the village. Not much to see, but a historical monument nonetheless.

The white monument is a rare example of a WWI memorial that only presents a female figure. The village was heavily damaged in the early weeks of the First World War when the Germans took over the village in September 1914. They were dislodged by American troops four years later.

Hattonchâtel was adopted after the war by Belle Skinner (1866-1928), a philanthropist from Massachusetts, who financed the village’s reconstruction, including the local château, village hall and a school, and the installation of a water system so as to bring drinking water into ever household.

So many stories in one desolate corner.

Far be it from me to suggest that this corner of this village in this part of France is worth the detour. But there you have it in a snapshot, a bit of American history along with much else, past, present and, with the election underway, future.

Most American WWI commemorative events in France will take place in 2018, centennial of our involvement in major fighting in France: Belleau Wood, Saint Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne and others. This summer, though, on private initiative, a transatlantic event called The Bridge 2017 will commemorate the centennial of the landing of the first major American contingent at Saint Nazaire. The ocean liner the Queen Mary 2 has been chartered for the occasion. She will be arriving at Saint-Nazaire, site of her construction, from her home port of Southampton, England, before making the transatlantic journey to New York, while four giant trimarans race against her during the crossing. In 1917 the Americans brought with them not only troops that would change the course of the war but also basketball and jazz, not to mention chewing gum and cigarettes. As part of the festivities, therefore the 3X3 Basketball World Cup will be held in Nantes June 17-21 and jazz will be a main feature of the June 21 summer solstice music festival in the area, as well as on board during the transatlantic crossing. I found a publication interested in my writing for them an article on the subject. It’s British. They liked the Queen Mary 2 angle.

© 2017, Gary Lee Kraut

For general tourist information about touring in three of the departments (French subregions) marked by battles involving Americans during the First World War, see Meuse (Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, St. Mihiel American Cemetery, etc.), Aisne (Aisne-Marne Cemetery, Belleau Wood, Blerancourt) and Ardennes (War and Peace Museum, Sergeant York

“The American Traveler and the First World War Sights in France” will be one of four lecture topics that the author will be proposing to universities, Alliance Française groups, libraires and other groups and organizations during his autumn-winter 2018-2019 guest lecture tour in the United States. If interested in this particular lecture write to Gary at gary [at] francerevisited.com.

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The French are particularly familiar with the significance of the name thanks to the success of the branch of the Rothschild family that made its mark in high finance in Paris in the 19th century. The French branch of the Rothschild family derives its wealth and reputation from James Rothschild (1792-1868), eventually ennobled to James de Rothschild, who moved to Paris to set up shop in the family finance business at the age of 20.

The name Rothschild itself comes from the roten Schild, the red shield that hung on their home in the Jewish quarter in Frankfurt in the 18th century. James, originally called Jacob, was the youngest of the 10 children of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1733-1812), founder of the fortuned dynasty whose branches would spread throughout Europe as James and his four brothers, corresponding with each other in Frankfurter Yiddish, established and developed their banking and commercial acumen in Frankfurt, London, Vienna, Naples and Paris. The arms of the family, to whom Francis I, Emperor of Austria, granted the title of baron in 1822, feature a firm hand grasping five arrows and the device Concordia, Integritas, Industria (Unity, Integrity, Activity/Industry)—a clear expression of the Rothschild philosophy of unity in business and in family.

Furthering that unity, James, in 1834, married his 19-year-old niece Betty, the daughter of his Vienna-based brother Salomon von Rothschild. James and Betty’s daughter Charlotte would eventually marry her cousin Nathaniel, son of James’s London-based brother Nathan, creating a closely related an offshoot branch of the Rothschilds in France.

The Pereires and the Camondos

The full emancipation of Jews in Europe, first in France in 1791 and then one by one to most European countries through the 19th century, coincided with the development of banking and industry, enabling several Jewish families to take full part in the rush to wealth of their era and to transmit their fortunes to succeeding generations.

Two other families in haute finance business in Paris in the 19th century were the Pereires and the Camondos. Like James de Rothschild, these families were players in high society and artistic life, creating magnificent homes and art collections. The two families were also of Jewish origin, though the Pereires, originally from Portugal, converted to Christianity once established in France.

The Pereire brothers, Isaac and Emile, born in Bordeaux, made their fortune in finance, railways and real estate. They were major players Haussman’s transformation of Paris and they spearheaded the creation of the Atlantic resort of Arcachon. James de Rothschild and the Pereire brothers joined forces in developing the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway company, and the former quickly became the line’s major shareholder.

The Pereire-Rothschild rivalry in the upper reaches of French finance could also be seen outside of the boardroom as Rothschild built his Chateau de Ferrières just two miles from the Pereires’ Château d’Armainvilliers, in the Brie region just east of Paris. And whereas the Pereires owned the Medoc vineyard of Chateau Palmer (Margaux), James grabbed a piece Médoc by purchasing the first-growth vineyard of Chateau Lafite (Pauillac). James’s son-in-law/nephew Nathaniel was already owner of Chateau (Brane-)Mouton.

Keeping up with the Rothschilds was no easy matter, especially with the brothers and succeeding generations forming an intimate multinational on their own. When the Pereires’ Crédit Mobilier bank went bankrupt in 1867, no one could save their loss of stature in the world of finance.

The Camondo family, a Sephardic Jewish banking family known as “the Rothschilds of the east,” arrived in France after having established their fortune in the Ottoman Empire and then using it to help finance Italian unification. Brothers Abraham (1829-1889) and Nissim (1830-1889) de Camondo, ennobled by King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy for that help, established their residence in France in 1869. Their respective sons, Issac (1851-1911) and Moïse (1860-1935), would eventually bequeath their extensive art and decorative collections to French cultural institutions, with Isaac’s collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings going to the Louvre and Moïse’s home and collection 18th-century decorative arts going to the French institute and still intact in the form of the Nissim de Camondo Museum, overlooking Parc Monceau in Paris.

The Pereires never regained their financial prominence after bankruptcy and the de Camondo line was extinguished with the death of Moïse’s son in WWI and the deportation of his daughter and grandchildren to Auschwitz in WWII. The Rothschilds were fortunate enough to flee France during the war (though the estranged wife of Philippe de Rothschild, owner of Mouton Rothschild, who was arrested and deported to Ravensbruck, where she died) and to regain most of their possessions afterwards, and the Rothschild name has survived as a sign of wealth and wine.

James de Rothschild

For more than half a century, from his arrival in France in 1812 during the final years of Napoleon’s First Empire to his death in 1868 during the waning days of Napoleon III’s Second Empire, James de Rothschild, along and his brothers, particularly Nathan in London, remained close to power and to governments of all ilk. Anchored with vast banking interests, James played a primordial role in the creation of the northern railway company (Compagnie du chemin de fer du Nord) and, in relation with his brothers, invested in coal mining and assorted commercial activities.

His was the kind of success that inevitably inspired novelist in describing characters of wealth. Balzac (a client of the Rothschild bank) in La Maison Nucingen, Stendhal in Lucien Lewen and Zola in L’Argent would each borrow some of his recognizable traits for characters in their novels.

Through his personal skills in finance and his family’s talents and connections as investment bankers, James de Rothschild became one of the wealthiest men in France and well beyond. As his wealth grew so did his interest in collecting art. He started his collection at age 29 by buying La Laitière (The Milkwoman) by Greuze (which his daughter Charlotte eventually bequeathed to the Louvre), along with Dutch and Flemish paintings. Ingres painted his wife’s portrait. Charlotte had Chopin as piano teacher; he dedicated two waltzes to her.

The mysterious “Rothschild taste” took shape with his personal favorites and a surprising mix of artworks from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 18th century, a taste inherited by his children, who would become significant donors to various museums and institutions in Paris. Some of Rothschild’s illuminated manuscripts, autographs and early photographs eventually found a home in the National Library (BnF). Jewish religious objects that he purchased, such as a Torah breastplate of silver, coral, pearls and semi-precious stones, now enrich the Museum of Jewish Art and History.

As to his own philanthropy, he supported health and geriatric services, notably by creating in 1852 the Rothschild Hospital near Picpus Cemetery in Paris’s 12th arrondissement. The Fondation de Rothschild continues to manage health and geriatric services at a variety of institutions in and around Paris.

Rothschild’s primary residence—and the seat of the family bank in Paris—was at 19 rue Laffitte in the 9th arrondissement. He threw lavish dinner parties orchestrated by Antonin Carême (1784-1833), one of the fathers of French haute cuisine and perhaps France’s first celebrity chef, responsible for creating what soon became legendary dishes bearing the name of his employer: soufflé à la, salmon à la and beef à la Rothschild. In 1838 James de Rothschild purchased the Hôtel de Tallyrand, a mansion at the corner of Place de la Concorde. His descendants owned the mansion until 1950 (during the German occupation it had been requisitioned as headquarters for the German navy), when they sold it to the United States government, which used it to administer the Marshall Plan. The U.S. still owns the property.

Travelers to the Riviera encounter the Rothschild name when visiting the exquisite Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and its lush gardens overlooking the Mediterranean from Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, just east of Nice. The villa belonged to Béatrice de Rothschild (1864-1934), James’s granddaughter, who had a marriage of great fortune with Maurice Ephrussi, heir to another Jewish banking family. Enough with the Jewish geography!

The most frequent sighting of the Rothschild name these days may well be in reference to wine. Along with other vineyards purchased over time, Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild still belong to French branches of the Rothschild family. The former is in the hands of Eric de Rothschild, who is also the current president of the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris and the honorary president of the Grande Synagogue de Paris (Rue de la Victoire), which was built with Rothschild family financial support in 1874, six years after James’s death.

James de Rothschild is buried in Paris in the Rothschild family mausoleum in a largely Jewish section (Division 7) of Père Lachaise Cemetery.

© 2013

This article is based on an article by Antoine Prodhomme originally published in French on L’Agora des Arts on the occasion of an exhibition about the Rothschilds in France in the 19th century at the French National Library (BNF – Richelieu) from November 2012 to February 2013. Gary Lee Kraut then translated, modified and expanded that article, with permission, for publication on France Revisited. A video presentation of the BNF exhibition can be viewed here.

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Two and a half years ago, in the spring of 2011, Janet Hulstrand, an American writer and teacher of literature, asked me if I’d be interested in publishing a profile of James A. Emanuel, a longtime American expatriate resident of Paris, on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

Publishing such an article would be a strange choice for most travel magazines. The poet wasn’t well known as a resident of Paris. In fact, when Janet first approached me about the article and I asked her if there were any particular poems about Paris, or France, that I might run along with it, she said probably not. I liked the idea of introducing readers to this consummate poet—both to the man and to his work—but it wasn’t until I read Janet’s article that I understood why it truly belonged in France Revisited.

France Revisited, beyond its focus on travel and culture, aims to explore the notion of place—best translated into French as terroir—which includes the products, the ideas, the culture and the people who are anchored, whether deeply or loosely, in a given place. It seemed to me that the life and work of James Emanuel expressed a deep sense of place even though that place wasn’t necessarily Paris or France.

When Janet interviewed James for the profile she asked him what he most appreciated about living in France, what it had given him. He replied, “Nothing visible or tactile, ugly or beautiful, can do more for me than leaving me alone, free to recreate my environment in ways that I can understand. France has been silent when I had no questions; and it has been wise and ultimately generous, even poetic, when I needed counsel to walk on, or surf to carry me toward some shore.”

I ran Janet’s article with James’s poem “Christmas at the Quaker Center,” one of her favorites, and one that the poet would consent to. It is a poem grounded in three places:  Nebraska, where he grew up; Paris, where he came to live; and the childhood memories which he carried with him everywhere.

James Emanuel’s funeral was held on October 4 at the crematorium at Père Lachaise Cemetery. Before the pine box in which he lay we read some of his poems, listened to music he loved, shared our memories of the man and heard a saxophone solo played by his friend Chansse Evans. An account of the funeral ceremony and the inhumation three days later has been written by Monique Wells for the website Entrée to Black Paris. James, through the presence of his ashes at Père Lachaise Cemetery, is now even more firmly anchored in the place,  le terroir, of Paris as he joins so many other remarkable writers, artists and musicians, both French and foreign, who made Paris their home.

Following James’s death I asked Janet Hulstrand if she would write another article about him, this time focusing on the man as she knew him through his visits to her class during her summer program “Paris: A Literary Adventure” nearly every year from 2000 to 2013. Thanks to Janet and to James, I’d attended one of those classes in 2011, when James gave me permission to film him reading his work to the class and answering their questions. Though my recording leaves much to be desired from a technical point of view, I’ve excerpted portions of it in order to give readers a glimpse of his remarkable presence, the quality of his reading, the confidentiality of his introductions, the precision of his thought and the universality of his poetry. Those clips accompany Janet’s beautiful and heartfelt article, Remembering James A. Emanuel, 1921-2013, Poet, Teacher, Humanitarian.

For those who haven’t yet taken the fabulous journey into James Emanuel’s work, or never had the chance to hear him read, this may be the perfect place to start.

© 2013, Gary Lee Kraut

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* * *

While I fully understand the desire of Americans, among others, to want to visit the beaches, cemeteries and WWII sites of Normandy, I can’t help but note the relative lack of visitors to the war memorials and cemeteries within far easier reach of Paris. For example:

– the American WWI cemeteries and memorials near Chateau-Thierry, including the Aisne-Marne Cemetery and Belleau Wood, 60 miles east of Paris,

– the Suresnes Cemetery, originally a WWI cemetery and now also containing the remains of soldiers from WWII, four miles west of the center of Paris, or

– the Escadrille La Fayette Memorial in Marnes-la-Coquette, six miles west of the center of Paris.

I recently attended the American Memorial Day commemoration at the latter.

The monument honors the flying corps comprised of American pilots who, having volunteered to take part in the First World War under French command (1916-1918), lost their lives in aerial combat. Sixty-eight of them are entombed below in a wide semi-circular crypt.

The monument, constructed 1926-1928, is in the form of a triumphal arch with porticoes to either side. The names of Lafayette and Washington are inscribed on the central portion, emphasizing the monument’s role as a symbol of French-American friendship. Inscriptions of the names of those who are entombed in the crypt join Lafayette and Washington in overlooking the Escadrille’s logo.

There’s no need to compare the significance or appeal of this and other cemeteries, monuments and memorials with those in Normandy.  It’s simply worth noting that for Americans visiting or living in Paris, one can pay homage to American involvement in war in Europe without complicated logistics or a full daytrip.

To reach the Escadrille La Fayette Memorial from the capital, take the suburban train from the Saint-Lazare station to the Garches/Marnes-la-Coquette stop, a 20-25-minute ride. From the station, turn left and walk for 10 minutes along Boulevard Raymond Poincaré to the entrance to the park, then follow the path several hundred yards to the clearing where the monument stands in the distance.

Update: When I wrote this brief illustrated text in 2012, the memorial was managed by a foundation, created in 1930, that oversaw its maintenance and operation and had to rely on stopgap measures to ensure its maintenance including funding from the French Ministry of Culture, local government and private donations. A letter of intent signed in 2012 between the American Embassy in France and the French Ministry of Defense promised to support continued financing of the moment. With the blessing of Congress and the French government, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) took ownership in 2017 and has operated it since, including opening a new visitor center there in 2018.

I leave you with this 5-minute video created by the American Battle Monuments Commission that provides a dramatic overview of the overseas cemeteries, monuments and memorials operated by the ABMC.

© 2012, Gary Lee Kraut

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The following year, Mrs Helen Carew, a friend of Robert Ross and who had known Wilde in his heyday, anonymously offered £2000 to erect a monument by the young and controversial sculptor Jacob Epstein on Wilde’s new resting place in Père Lachaise.

The commission, a flying angel with Assyrian overtones, was executed and finally unveiled in 1914. Apart from the appearance of a few graffiti in the 1950s and the hacking off of the angel’s private parts by person or persons unknown sometime in the early 1960s, the monument survived relatively unscathed until 1985. It was then that the graffiti started to increase exponentially in number.

The expense of regular cleaning prompted the descendants of Wilde and Ross (whose ashes were placed in the tomb in 1950) to seek listing for the tomb as a French Historic Monument, in the hope that classification would, to some extent, deter those who were defacing it.

In 1995, after a thorough cleaning and resoration thanks to the generosity of the Irish government, the Monuments Historiques included it on their ‘Liste Supplementaire’ (the equivalent of about Grade II* in the UK) and suggested that an application be made at once to apply for a full status. This was accorded two years later, almost as a matter of course. Wilde’s tomb in Père Lachaise is now a fully classified French Historic Monument – a Grade I listed structure.

Since about 1999, the graffiti have been replaced by a far more worrying phenomenon – the placing of lipstick kisses on the stone. The grease base of the lipstick penetrates the stone and long after the colouring pigments have faded, a grease ‘shadow’ is still visible. A bronze plaque at the base of the tomb since the early 1990s asking visitors in English and French to “respect the memory of Oscar Wilde and do not deface this tomb…” no longer has any effect at all. ‘Kissing Oscar’s tomb’ on the Paris tourist circuit has become a cult pastime, the continuity of which is proving impossible to break.

From a technical point of view the tomb is close to being irreparably damaged; each cleaning has degraded some of the stone surface and rendered it more porous and has subsequently necessitated a more drastic cleaning.

Now, once again, the Irish have come to the rescue and have funded a radical cleaning and ‘de-greasing’ of the tomb, as well as a glass barrier which will surround it to prevent the lipstick-kissing fans from causing further damage.

The renovation and protection of the tomb was celebrated in Père Lachaise on 30 November, the 111th anniversary of Wilde’s death, in the presence of the Irish Minister of State at the Dept. of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Mr. Dinny McGinley TD, the Irish Ambassador and high-ranking French officials, and Merlin Holland, Wilde’s grandson. The actor Rupert Everett, who has played in film adaptations of Wilde’s plays  The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ideal Husband, was special guest of honour at the event.

It is hoped that the event will draw attention to the problem and will make those who visit Wilde’s tomb from now on aware of the damage their predecessors have caused and appeal to their sense of respect.

*

The information above was provided by Sheila Pratschke, Director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.

The France Revisited article “Spotlight on the National and Religious Cultural Centers of Paris” includes information about the Irish Cultural Center.

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It was one of those sights or grouping of sights that I kept hearing about and that I kept ignoring. Each time it rose to the top of my list of places to visit in the months ahead I would push it back a few notches.

Yet Chateau Thierry eventually made it to the top of that list—in part because I’d already toured and written so much about the WWII D-Day Landing Zone that had become increasingly interested in the WWI landscape of France; in part because the 100th anniversary of The Great War, the Der Des Ders, is approaching; and finally because I had the opportunity to interview and tour the WWI sights near Chateau-Thierry with David Atkinson, Superintendent of the Aisne-Marne American War Cemetery.

Before moving on to other work on the subject of these sights, here is a photolog of a day’s visit.

The Chateau-Thierry War Monument overlooks the town and the Marne Valley from above the Champagne vineyards at the top of a hill two miles west of the town center. I arrived on a day of low clouds and on-and-off rain. Though Chateau Thierry is administratively in the department of Aisne, the Champagne vineyards start here.

I went up for closer look at the double colonnade monument constructed to “commemorate the sacrifices and achievements of American and French fighting men in the region and cooperation of French and American forces during World War I.”

Constructed in 1930, the memorial was designed by Paul Cret, the French-American architect who received numerous commissions to create war memorials and battlefield monuments in Europe and in the United States. The American Battle Monuments Commission, “guardian of America’s overseas commemorative cemeteries and memories,” was created in 1923.

A description of the significance of the battles involving American soldiers that began in the Marne Valley is engraved on the memorial.

Figures representing the United States and France hold hands at the center of the west façade.

Visitors unfamiliar with the region may have difficulty situating the towns on the map below of the Aisne-Marne Salient that’s engraved on the monument. You’ll notice that the big Champagne towns of Epernay and Reims are just to the east and northeast. Among the WWI sites indicated on the map, the Chemin des Dames (near the top of the map), a ridge of tunnels and trenches presented now in a museum on the site, also makes for a worthy stop for more extensive war touring in the region.

The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery is 4.5 miles northwest of the monument, 6.5 miles from the town. The cemetery and the woods above it comprise the area’s main WWI sight for symbolic value and, though largely unknown to Americans, those woods are of utmost to members of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Belleau Wood: the very name is a battle cry for the Marines Corps. It was in the fierce Battle of Belleau Wood that the Marines earned their military lettres de noblesse by holding off an important sector of the final German offensives of 1918, before pursuing, along with French and British forces, the advances that would eventually lead to Germany’s recognition of defeat in the form of the Armistice of November 11.

The Army was naturally also a major force along this front though the headlines at the time emphasized the Marines, so there remains a hearty rivalry between Army and Marines as to the credit each deserves. In any case, 17% of those buried at this cemetery were Marines, according to David Atkinson, Superintendent of the Aisne-Marne Cemetery.

With drama similar to the position of the Normandy American Cemetery on the cliff above the once-bloodied tides of Omaha Beach, the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery lies at the foot of the great battleground that was Belleau Wood.

The cemetery, more particularly Belleau Wood itself, has ever since been a pilgrimage site for the Marines. On leave from Afganistan or Iraq or stationed elsewhere, says Atkinson, Marines will come here and ask (or frequently not ask) to spend the night in the woods.

David Atkinson’s American father landed in Normandy a week after D-Day and took part in the Battle of Normandy 1944 as part of the Engineering Corps… and met Atkinson’s French mother there.

Atkinson oversaw the cemetery as superintendent from 2002 to 2003 and again beginning in 2007. [Post-note: David Atkinson retired from the position in 2015.]

He says that despite the site’s significance in American military history, no sitting president has visited the site, though Nixon visited after his presidency. The cemetery nevertheless hosts one of Europe’s largest American Memorial Day commemorations.

The cemetery contains the remains of 2289 war dead, most of whom fought in the vicinity and in the Marne Valley in the late spring and summer of 1918. The Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, a 30-minute drive (about 17 miles) northeast of here near the town of Fère-en-Tardenois, contains far more tombs (6012) than Aisne-Marne, however the latter’s connection with Belleau Wood gives it its special symbolic meaning.

Eighty, ninety years on, it’s necessary to replace or restore some of the original Italian marble headstones.

Inside the chapel…

… the walls are inscribed with the names of 1060 originally listed as missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered or identified.

A German Cemetery with the remains of 8625 soldiers lies a half-mile up the road.

Superintendent Atkinson took me on a tour of Belleau Wood, where we stopped to overlook the chapel…

… and to glimpse the cemetery between the trees.

The outline of trenches of 1918 can still be seen in Belleau Wood.

Captured Germany artillery is still there.

A monument shows a Marine attacking with rifle and bayonet.

The thickest of the oak trees standing in the woods were witness to the fighting of June 1918. Superintendent Atkinson says that visiting Marines will often want to take a piece of the wood home with them, harming trees in the process. That led him to carve up some trees that were to be removed anyway in efforts to preserve Belleau Wood and to offer up engraved pieces as gifts to visiting Marines and to certain other curious visitors.

I thank him for including me among the latter. Here is my piece of Belleau Wood, along with the flags he kindly supplied.

Practical information

Opening times: The cemetery is open daily from 9am to 5pm except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.

Getting there: Chateau Thierry is 54 miles east from Paris, an hour by train or by car. Reims is another 30 minutes further east. By car, the war sights are easily visited just off the A-4 autoroute on the way to or from Champagne or on an overnight in the Chateau Thierry area. By train, it’s possible to take a taxi to the monument and to the cemetery or to rent a car for the day.

Tourist information: The official tourist website for Chateau Thierry and the surrounding area in this southern portion of the department of Aisne.

Tours: For an excursion combining war touring and champagne vineyards see here.

Other articles about WWI touring in and near Chateau-Thierry

ABMC WWI Museum Opens at Château-Thierry’s American Monument
Château-Thierry Reaffirms Its Bond with the United States
Quentin Roosevelt, President’s Son, the Most Famous American Killed in France in WWI

Other notable sights in and near Chateau Thierry

Museum of the Treasure of the Hotel Dieu
The town’s most artful site is its Hotel Dieu, a former convent and Church-run hospital-cum-public hospital that presents its treasure-trove of paintings, sculptures, earthenware, furniture and religious articles, all of which were donated to the institution over the centuries. Chateau Thierry’s Hotel Dieu was founded by Queen Jeanne de Navarre in 1304 and had its heyday as a religious institution thanks to major benefactors of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Among modern benefactors are the Friends of French Art California who helped finance the restoration of a painting and a buffet. A guided tour (the only way to access the museum) explains the history of the institution, opens the doors to its treasures, and tells the fascinating and sometimes horrific story of the cloistered life. The Hotel Dieu served as a public hospital until 1983 and remains the property of the public hospital system. There are limited touring times (Fri. and Sat. Nov.-March, also Sun. April-Oct.), so check the website in advance for times and/or call town hall (03 23 83 51 14) for a reservation.

The La Fontaine Museum
Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) is the French-speaking world’s most famous fable teller. (The English-speaking world is more familiar with the work of Aesop, whose work comes to us from Greek then Roman Antiquity.) La Fontaine’s birthplace and family home, dating from 1559, has been a museum in his honor since 1876 and has recently been restored. Open daily except Monday.

Chateau de Condé
There’s little to be seen of the castle that gave Chateau Thierry its name, but there is a notable private chateau 10 miles east that’s open to the public. The Chateau de Condé, in the village of Condé en Brie, is rather under-visited considering the quality of its décor of the 17th and 18th centuries and the possibility of encountering members of the Pasté de Rochefort family, owners since 1983. Open April 15-Oct. 15 daily except Mon., 2:30-5:30pm. Open for groups upon reservation at other times.

Dance with the Eagles
A live outdoor show of birds of prey is held daily April 1-Nov. 2 by the ruins of Thierry’s castle. Here, to close the American theme of this photolog, is an American Bald Eagle that I met in its dressing room after the show.

Photos and text © 2011, Gary Lee Kraut.

For another article about WWI memorials and cemeteries in northern France read “Olivier Dirson, WWI Battlefield Guide: One History Leads to Another.”

The post An Hour from Paris: Chateau Thierry’s American WWI Sights (photolog) appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

For an hour or two we can fool ourselves into believing that we’ve gained an hour of Saturday night partying or of Sunday morning leisure or of weekend sleep. But before long we realize that turning back the clocks forces us to face up to our own dwindling time.

Evening is already night. Soon, late afternoon will be evening. It’s no wonder that the Catholic tradition in France is to go to the cemetery on November 1 to place chrysanthemums on the tombs of loved ones, as here at Pere Lachaise.

Oh, it’s a straight path to the end alright.

The only beliefs worth holding onto are that the seasons are cyclical and that the earth will continue to rotate round the sun and that before we know it the days will be getting longer and come spring we’ll have the afternoon sky back, followed by daylight in evening. Then night will simply be night again, not day as well.

In the meantime, let’s just have a good cry for the end of daylight saving time, our fair-weather friend.

Let’s contemplate our loss…

and let go of those things we can’t change…

and hold onto to sweet memories…

and accept that for the next few months we’ll still be looking out the window from our desk in the afternoon…

when night falls.

– Photos and text © 2011, Gary Lee Kraut.

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The pardon may be irrelevant at this point, but these are boom times for cobblestones leading to Morrison’s grave.

What’s Florida-born Morrison doing buried in Paris anyway? Well, in 1970, while out on bail during the appeal process of the 6-month jail sentence for which he has now been pardoned, Morrison came to Paris intending, perhaps, to make the transformation from rock ‘n roll sex symbol to literary luminary.

He stayed in Paris for part of the summer of 1970 then did some European traveling in the fall and winter and returned to Paris in March 1971, which pretty much sounds like junior year abroad.

Whatever his plans then, they were soon tackled by heightened drug and alcohol abuse. On July 3, 1971 he was found dead in his bathtub at 17 rue Beautreillis in the 4th arrondissement (the Marais), apparently from a mix of drugs and alcohol, though some contend that his body was carried there from a nightclub.

The Greek inscription on his tombstone in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris means “According to his spirit,” more or less meaning “true to his spirit” or, to quote fellow crooner Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way.” Florida has now forgiven him for it. The security and maintenance staff at Père Lachaise Cemetery probably have not.

– Photo and text, GLK

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Those words are often attributed to U.S. General John Pershing when, on July 4, 1917, having arrived in France with the American Expeditionary Force upon the U.S. entrance into WWI, he visited Lafayette’s tomb at Picpus Cemetery in Paris. They were actually spoken by Pershing’s aide, Colonel Charles E. Stanton, but no matter, the Americans had indeed arrived to pay homage to the French hero of the American Revolution.

They still do.

In permanent recognition of his role in aiding the American cause, an American flag has flown over Lafayette’s grave ever since the end of WWI. The flag is changed every year on July 4 in a highly orchestrated ceremony attended by French and American dignitaries, including representatives of the U.S. Embassy, the French Senate, the Mayor’s Office, the Office of the Mayor of the 12th Arrondissement, the Society of American Friends of Lafayette, the Sons of the American Revolution in France, and the Society of the Cincinnati in France.

Watch France Revisited’s audio slide-show of the Fourth of July Ceremony below.

Lafayette and revolution
The life of the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), and by consequence his tomb and the flag that flies there, are among enduring symbols of the mutual engagement of France and the United States in times of trouble. Known as “the hero of two worlds” or “the patriot of two countries,” the general-marquis speaks of the best of French-American relations.

Lafayette served the American cause on both sides of the Atlantic—as a nobleman promoting lobbying Louis XVI for arms and money and as an officer fighting alongside George Washington. In 1776, when only 19, he went overseas, befriended Washington and fought on the forefront of the American War of Independence. A decade later he was involved in the politics of his own country in the throes of revolution. He eventually gave Thomas Paine the key to the Bastille for him to present to Washington.

With the French Revolution underway, the marquis favored transforming the ancien régime into a modern democracy through a bloodless revolution that would likely bring about a constitutional monarchy. While in favor of the abolition of feudal privilege he also sought to defend the king.

He served as a commander in the Revolutionary Army in 1792, but sensing that his position as a moderate and as a nobleman was untenable he fled to Belgium. There he was immediately imprisoned by the Prussians and Austrians who considered him dangerous as an anti-monarchist. The United States failed—or at least was unable—to help win his release and he spent the next five years in prison despite his having earlier been made an honorary citizen of Virginia and Maryland. In 2002 the U.S. Congress named Lafayette an honorary U.S. citizen, only the fifth person to have received that honor. (The full text of that resolution follows this article.)

Returning to France under Napoleon’s rule, Lafayette again entered political life, and he lived long enough to play a role in yet another revolution, the overthrow of Charles X in 1830.

Why Picpus Cemetery?
Picpus Cemetery, where Lafayette is buried, is adjacent to the area where two mass graves were dug in the summer of 1794 to dispose of the remains of the 1306 people who were beheaded several hundred yards away during the Revolution, at the height of the period known as the Terror.

The main venue for the guillotine was on what is now Place de la Concorde, where throngs witnessed the most spectacular beheadings, from that from Louis XVI on Jan. 21, 1793, to that of Robespierre on July 28, 1794. From June 14 to July 27, 1794, a guillotine was also set up on the eastern edge of Paris at Place du Trône (Throne), then sardonically called Place du Trône Renversé (Overturned Throne), now called Place de la Nation,

Two years later, in calmer times, the land was purchased by a noblewoman, and in the early 1800s some of the noble families whose relatives had been guillotined began to use land adjacent to the mass graves as a family cemetery. Lafayette’s wife (1859-1807), who’d lost her grandmother, mother, and sister to the guillotine, was one of the founding members of the Committee of the Society of Picpus, which is why she and her husband, who died of natural causes on May 20, 1834, are buried here.

Lafayette’s full, forgettable name, by the way, is Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette or Lafayette. French purists may insist on the aristocratic form La Fayette, but the tomb itself indicates Lafayette.

Picpus is the only private cemetery in Paris, overseen by the Foundation de l’Oratoire du Cimetière de Picpus, however it is open to the public, though the July 4 ceremony is by invitation only.

The cemetery is located behind the oratory (chapel) Notre-Dame de la Paix, seat of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The names of the 1306 people who were beheaded nearby in the summer of 1794 are engraved on two walls of the oratory. The oratory takes its name from an 11-inch statue dating to the 16th century whose annual feast day is July 9. Louis XIV is said to have been miraculously cured from illness on that date in 1658 after praying to the statue.

Cimetière de Picpus, 35 rue de Picpus, 12th arr. Metro Nation or Picpus. Tel. 01 43 44 18 54. Open April 1 – Oct. 15 Tues.-Sun. 2-6pm; Oct. 16 – March 30 Tues.-Sat. 2-4pm. Also closed holidays throughout the year. Entrance fee: 3 euros.

© 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

Read this accompanying article on France Revisited:
My Dear General: The Relationship Between Washington and Lafayette

Text of the 2002 Joint Resolution of the Congress conferring honorary citizenship of the U.S. to the Marquis de Lafayette

Public Law 107–209
107th Congress
Joint Resolution
Conferring honorary citizenship of the United States posthumously on Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette.
Whereas the United States has conferred honorary citizenship on four other occasions in more than 200 years of its independence, and honorary citizenship is and should remain an extraordinary honor not lightly conferred nor frequently granted;
Whereas Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette or General Lafayette, voluntarily put forth his own money and risked his life for the freedom of Americans;
Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette, by an Act of Congress, was voted to the rank of Major General;
Whereas, during the Revolutionary War, General Lafayette was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, demonstrating bravery that forever endeared him to the American soldiers;
Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette secured the help of France to aid the United States’ colonists against Great Britain;
Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette was conferred the honor of honorary citizenship by the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland;
Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette was the first foreign dignitary to address Congress, an honor which was accorded to him upon his return to the United States in 1824;
Whereas, upon his death, both the House of Representatives and the Senate draped their chambers in black as a demonstration of respect and gratitude for his contribution to the independence of the United States;
Whereas an American flag has flown over his grave in France since his death and has not been removed, even while France was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II; and
Whereas the Marquis de Lafayette gave aid to the United States
in her time of need and is forever a symbol of freedom:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, is proclaimed posthumously to be an honorary citizen of the United States of America.
Approved August 6, 2002.

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