Admittedly, war touring isn’t for everyone. After all, that’s far from the Eiffel Tower, isn’t it? (Well, no, you can actually see the Eiffel Tower from an American war cemetery.) And you’d rather be drinking Champagne, right? (Well, the largest U.S. WWI monument in France actually overlooks Champagne vineyards at Château-Thierry.) And you’d rather visit the Gothic cathedrals of France than the war shines of Americans. (You mean like those that you’ll pass along the way?)

OK, I won’t try to convince you. But if you’ll give a look and listen to the presentation below, you’ll see and learn why someone—maybe not you, but you’ve got curious friends and relatives, right?—might want to visit these sights.

Don’t just take my word for it.

Earlier this year I met with John Wessels, Chief Operating Officer of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), to ask if the ABMC would be willing to participate in a Zoom talk with me to explain to readers of France Revisited the interest of knowing about and one day visiting the American WWI sights of France. He readily agreed. There was then a question of finding the right person to co-present with me.

I’ve written many articles about touring American war sights in France relative to both the WWI and WWII, I’ve have given lectures in the United States on the subject, and I’ve personally taken numerous travelers to visit these sights. But I’m a generalist regarding travel and touring in France. So I needed a true specialist to join me for the presentation, preferably a military historian who’s visited the sights to be discussed who could speak authoritatively about both major events of the First World War and the creation and evolution of memorials, monuments and cemeteries. Thanks to John Wessels and to the ABMC’s media and communications duo of Hélène Chauvin in Paris and Ashley Byrnes in Arlington, we found the perfect specialist for the program: Ben Brands, the ABMC’s historian and a war veteran himself (Afghanistan).

I now invite you to watch the France Revisited “Conversation with an Expert” below in which Ben Brands and I speak about the American WWI memorials, monuments and cemeteries of France. This presentation—illustrated with numerous maps and photos—was conducted and recorded via Zoom on November 10, 2022, with a live audience of readers of France Revisited. Several segments were rerecorded shortly thereafter so as to resolve technical problems and for coherence.

The timeline below the video indicates the list of topics, events and sights along with the speaker, whether Ben Brands (BB) or myself (GLK). The full presentation lasts 1½ hours. If you wish to watch only portions of the presentation, I recommend that you watch it directly on Youtube and on full screen so that you can click or tap directly on the timeline in the Youtube description section in order to arrive at segments of particular interest to you and better view details of the images. Be sure to watch my introduction and Ben Brand’s conclusion to understand the underlying reasons for organizing this presentation.

Video timeline

0:00:00 Introduction by Gary Lee Kraut
0:05:40 Ben Brands presents the work of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)
0:07:12 Who is Ben Brands? What is his role as historian at the ABMC? His tour of duty as a company commander in Afghanistan.
0:12:22 A comparison between a WWII map of the Invasion of Normandy 1944 and WWI maps of northern and northeastern France and Belgium. (GLK)
0:15:24 American entrance into war. Pershing visits Lafayette’s tomb in the Picpus Cemetery in Paris. (BB)
0:18:39 The annual changing of the American flag over Lafayette’s tomb in Paris. (GLK)
0:19:30 Origin and evolution of the ABMC. (BB)
0:23:35 The Lafayette Escadrille Memorial. (BB)
0:27:41 The Suresnes American Cemetery. (GLK, BB)
0:32:00 Mont Valérien, a major French WWII memorial, a 5-minute walk from the Suresnes American Cemetery. (GLK)
0:34:17 The American Naval Monument at Brest. (BB)
0:36:39 Why didn’t the Germans intentionally harm the Allies’ WWI sights during WWII? American involvement in the Somme. The Somme American Cemetery. (BB)
0:40:35 Cantigny. (BB, GLK)
0:42:09 Amiens and the American Red Cross huts at the former Cosserat Textile Factory. (GLK)
0:45:01 Art Deco design and architecture in Saint Quentin and Reims. (GLK)
0:46:33 The American Monument at Château-Thierry, Paul Cret, Belleau Wood, the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. (BB)
0:57:52 The French-American House if Friendship in Château-Thierry. (GLK)
0:58:34 The Oise-Aisne American Cemetery. (BB)
1:01:04 Quentin Roosevelt, a president’s son killed in aerial combat. (BB)
1:05:08 Anne Morgan and the National Museum of French American Cooperation in the Château de Blérancourt. (GLK)
1:05:56 The Saint Mihiel American Cemetery and the Montsec American Monument. (BB)
1:09:20 Philanthopist Belle Skinner and the village of Hattonchâtel. (GLK)
1:10:18 Verdun and the Douaumont Ossuary. (GLK)
1:11:56 The Montfaucon American Monument. (BB)
1:14:18 African-American soldiers: segregation, heroes, awards and burials. Jewish grave markers. (BB)
1:20:52 The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. (BB)
1:23:09 The Romagne German Cemetery, Jean-Paul de Vries’ Romagne 14-18, Sergeant York. (GLK)
1:25:17 The French and American Tombs of the Unknown Soldier. (BB)
1:27:25 Conclusions by Gary and Ben.

Sights discussed in this presentation are located in the Paris region and the departments of Finistère (Brittany), Somme (Upper France), Aisne (Upper France) and Meuse (Eastern France).

Text © 2022, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Where and Why to Visit the American WWI Sights of France appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Despite its significance in 20th-century history and its role in transforming the United States into a world power, the First World War sights, cemeteries and museums of France typically hold little interest for American travelers. Yet several are at Paris’s doorsteps: the Suresnes American Cemetery and the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial are both in the suburbs while the Musée de la Grande Guerre (Museum of the Great War) in Meaux is just 25 miles east along a meander in the Marne River.

In the history of the war, Meaux and the surrounding region are particularly associated with the First Battle of the Marne of September 1914 that pitted French and British forces against rapidly advancing German forces. By halting the German advance before its forces could reach Paris, the battle helped stave off a German victory while putting the belligerents on course for a long slog of trench warfare. Nearly four years later, in July 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne involved a final major German offense followed by an Allied counteroffensive that, with the participation now of American forces, would lead to the Armistice of November 11 and the defeat of Germany.

Meaux itself was not a battleground of the Second Battle of the Marne. It took place farther east and north, so the battlefields where Americans fought are therefore further out from Paris, such as in and around Chateau-Thierry, 35 miles northeast of Meaux. Yet long before the Museum of the Great War opened in 2011, Meaux had its American Monument. Also known as Tearful Liberty, the sculpture by Frederick William MacMonnies was dedicated in 1932, a gift from the United States to honor “heroic sons of France who dared all and gave all in the day of deadly peril.” The museum was created right nearby.

The core of the Museum of the Great War is the tremendous collection of objects from the First World War that had been amassed over more than 40 years by the historian and collector Jean-Pierre Verney. Under the guidance of Mayor Jean-François Copé (pictured at top of page addressing WWI reenactors), who continues to head this town of 56,000 and presides over the wider agglomeration of 107,000, the Greater Meaux region (Pays de Meaux) purchased Verney’s collection of 48,000 objects in 2005 and set about creating this museum to house them. The collection has since been enriched by thousands of additional telling objects from the war of 1914-1918, including major pieces such as a tank, a plane, a truck and artillery.

The museum’s permanent display begins by dialing back its historical clock to France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the ensuing decades of conflict and rivalry between France and the powerful, newly unified Germany. Through objects rather than lengthy descriptive panels, the displays then cover the First Battle of the Marne, trench warfare, weaponry and protections, uniforms, the daily lives of soldiers, treatment of the wounded, the United States’ entrance and participation in the war, the Second Battle of the Marne, women and society, attempts at creating a lasting peace, and more.

As interesting and accessible as the museum can be for uninformed visitors, it will be especially appealing to war buffs and collectors due to the depth and breadth of the collection.

Reenactment Weekend in September

Uninformed and informed visitors alike will find no more pleasurable time to visit the museum than the first weekend in September when First World War reenactors parade through the streets of Meaux then set up camp alongside the museum.

This year’s Saturday morning parade started at the covered food market and ended an hour later at the town’s war memorial, just past the medieval cathedral. There, the reenactors gathered for the laying of wreaths and the playing of La Sonnerie aux Morts, France’s bugle call for military funerals and memorial ceremonies. (The Sunday morning parade marched through other quarters.)

The museum is informative and insightful at any time of year, yet visiting over reenactment weekend additionally gives visitors the opportunity to meet reenactors and share in their comradery and their passion for the historical period from 1914 to 1918 and its uniforms and paraphernalia and ways of life.

Meet some of the reenactors in this France Revisited video, which also contains a presentation of the museum by its director, Audrey Chaix.

Along with its vast permanent collection, the museum is currently hosting two temporary exhibitions. The first, “Trenches,” explains the complexities of the trench system that so defined fighting and near-stalemate during the war. It runs until Jan. 2, 2023. The second, Women in the Great War presents, in the forecourt of the museum, photography and archival material revealing the role of women during the war. It runs until Aug. 14, 2023.

Museum of the Great War / Musée de la Grande Guerre, Rue Lazare Ponticelli, 77100 Meaux. Open 9:30AM to 6PM daily except Tuesday. Entrance: 10€; 7€ with regional public transportation Navigo Pass and for over 65; 5€ for under 26. Free on Nov. 11 and the first Sunday of each month.

The Meaux Tourist Office, 1 place Doumer, is a 10-minute walk from the train station and several minutes past the Gothic Saint Etienne Cathedral.

Brie cheese

Meaux has more to offer than wartime memories. As cheese lovers in France are well aware, Meaux is a part of brie country. Brie is the historic name of the region directly to the east of Paris. As a location, the name has largely disappeared from the map other than at the tail end of the names of several small towns. As a cheese, brie is known around the world.

Yet Brie without a geographical title of nobility is not a protected appellation of origin—it can be produced anywhere in the world as a style of soft cow’s milk cheese. Brie de Meaux, however, can only be produced in the swath of the region that passes this way starting just east of Paris. It’s much tastier than the pasteurized bries made beyond the region and abroad. Brie de Melun (Melun is a town in the southeast of the Greater Paris region), also made from raw cow’s milk, is slightly stronger and saltier. So Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun are the bries to seek out when in France. If you’ve got a nose for cheese, it can be particularly interesting to compare the two. Cheese hunters setting out to discover the variety of regional bries might also seek out Brie Noir, a far less common brie that has been aged for about one year to the point of becoming dark, crumbly, chewy and more earthy and still stronger in taste.

In the same general area of town as the museum, one can learn about the production of appellation brie cheeses at Fromagerie de Meaux Saint Faron on rue Jehan de Brie.

Getting to Meaux from Paris

By train, Meaux is 30-40 minutes from Paris’s Gare de l’Est (East Station). No ticket is necessary for holders of the 5-zone Navigo Pass. The museum is two miles from the station. A regular bus from the Meaux station takes about 10 minutes to get there. There’s also a free shuttle to the museum from the station on weekends and during school vacations in the region.

By car, Meaux might be visited as a first stop on a day or more of touring war sights further to the east, before heading on to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau Wood and the American Monument at Chateau-Thierry.

By bike, those who wish to combine sport with a visit to the war museum can reach Meaux from Paris after a 32-mile pedal that largely follows along the Canal de l’Ourcq. The Canal de l’Ourcq begins just after the Bassin de la Villette toward the northeast edge of Paris. After a mile along the canal, the capital is left behind, then apartment buildings, train tracks and office buildings give way to suburban residential housing which eventually disappears in favor of parks, wood, fields, country roads, villages, and finally some more trafficked roads as one enters Meaux. Much of the ride is along the canal’s tow path (mostly paved, some dirt) but there are occasional stretches of road biking. Check the weather, rent a bike first thing in the morning or the previous evening, then set out at 9 or 10 for an athletic 3-hour ride or a more leisurely 4+, have lunch in town, visit the museum, then ease your way back to Paris by riding to the Meaux train station and taking your bike onto the train.

© 2022, Gary Lee Kraut

On November 10, 2022, France Revisited will be hosting Zoom conversation with a Ben Brands, a historian with the American Battle Monuments Commission, to discuss the history of the American WWI cemeteries and monuments of France and how best to visit them. Details will be sent out to subscribers of the France Revisited Newsletter.

Readers interested in private touring of the American WWI sights and other highlights in the regions where they’re located may contact Gary Lee Kraut personally by writing through this site.

The post Meaux’s Museum of the Great War, WWI Reenactors and Brie (Video) appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

December 10, 2018
Dear Friends, Readers and Travelers,

I write this in the wake of two major events in Paris over the past month that occurred by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe:

1/ On Nov. 11, the gathering of leaders of the belligerent nations of the First World War to commemorate the centennial of the armistice.

2/ On Dec. 1, the vandalization of the arch by some affiliated with the Yellow Vest movement.
It’s no coincidence that both events took place at the same highly symbolic site since each of those involved individuals holding different visions of the future of national and international institutions.

Close-up images of burning cars may be impressive, but planning violence by setting out early in the day with bocce balls in your backpack rather than an AK-47 and 50 rounds nearly seems quaint from an American point of view. Anyway, those Yellow Vests who arrived in the capital intent on destruction can’t be considered as defining the entire movement. The many who say that it’s time to “take our country back” and end the current presidency because they say so are likely more representative, with many earnest earning- and tax-related gripes, complaints and frustrations in the mix.

Parisians want to feel safe, of course. And we do—safe, secure, well-fed. Visitors should too; they may just need to turn to guidance (e.g. the hotel receptionist) to know where not to venture on a demonstration day. Personally, I’m looking forward to a visitor-filled holiday season. As to travel through the rest of France, slow traffic on a partially blocked route is the main risk—and yet another good reason to take to country roads.

Still, between the centennial commemorations and the vandalization of the Arc de Triomphe, not to mention Yemen, Saudi assassination teams, global warming and whatever the Russians are now up to, I’ve decided to make this a 5-part newsletter on the theme of war.

France Revisited is not, however, a place for pessimism. Travel means learning and wars are historical events that we can learn from. Rest assured, this newsletter also speaks of champagne for the holidays, bratwurst for Batignolles and some exceptional French cuisine for your Paris restaurant list.

Here’s the newsletter war strategy.

Part 1. Over There: WWI Sights of the American Meuse-Argonne Offensive
Part 2. Belleau Wood, the War on History and Peaceful Champagne with Gary on Dec. 14
Part 3. Paris’s New WWI Memorial
Part 4. The War on Slavery: The Abolition Route in eastern France
Part 5. Hanukkah and the War of the Maccabees (an Excuse)

Part 1. Over There: WWI Sights of the American Meuse-Argonne Offensive

The First World War left its mark throughout the department of Meuse in northeast France, from Saint Mihiel to Verdun to the Argonne Forest. This article, including three videos, examines several sights relative to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of the U.S. First Army in the fall of 1918: the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Romagne 14-18, the Romagne German Cemetery and the Montfaucon Monument. It also provides information about visiting other WWI sights in and on the edge of Meuse, along with hotel and B&B suggestions.

Part 2. Belleau Wood, the War on History and Peaceful Champagne with Gary on Dec. 14

No sitting U.S. president has ever visited Belleau Wood, the Aisne-Marne Cemetery and the American Monument at Chateau-Thierry, which are among the most significant American WWI sights in France. In planning for U.S. President Donald Trump to the visit Belleau Wood and the cemetery that it overlooks last month, the State Department and president-watchers of all tendencies were well aware that this was to be an exceptional occasion. Extreme precautions were made to ensure that, rain or shine, it all went off without a hitch: the photo op, the clear, simple speech, etc. The point, of course, was not for the president himself to get a tour of those sights, but for Americans at home and abroad to bear witness—and therefore participate—in his honoring of fallen countrymen and the connection between their deaths, our participation in the war, and our country today.

Cancelling the visit on a day of light rain robbed Americans of that opportunity. A president’s indifference became the indifference of American citizens. Consider it a battle won by those waging a war on our own history. But here’s the catch: you have to know what you’ve been robbed of in order to know what’s missing.

To understand the harm of the cancelled visit, try to imagine the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Pointe du Hoc without a visiting U.S. president making a speech about how America is greater and the world better off for what happened there. You can’t. That’s because a major reason that millions of Americans feel connected enough with D-Day and U.S. involvement in the Second World War to travel to Normandy is because of Reagan’s presence in 1984, Clinton’s in 1994, Bush’s in 2004, and/or Obama’s in 2014—and Private Ryan’s in 1998.

Some of those presidents you despise, others you admire. But it’s neither that admiration or contempt that led you to Normandy; it’s the fact that their very presence focused attention on a time and a place and made it seem important, significant, moving, worthy of attention and of a 3-hour trek from Paris, rain or shine. You felt in one way or another that those sights belonged to you, no matter which president gave the speech, as long as it was given.

We have collectively now been robbed of an opportunity to feel that connection with these World War I sites. But individually you can still go. One possibility is to join me on December 14, when I’ll be leading a small group or groups from Paris to the area of the president’s cancelled visit, an hour away. In the morning we’ll visit the war sights, followed by a delicious lunch with champagne tasting. In the afternoon we’ll visit two champagne producers in the area. For those who live in Paris, you’ll be able to stock up inexpensively on champagne for the holidays.

Let me know as soon as possible if you’d like to join. The cost of the daytrip (including transportation, lunch, tastings and tours) is 270 euros per person, 520 euros for two. The first two people who can tell me the color of the cat with respect to this newsletter get 25 euros off for this week’s trip.
I’ll also be repeating this trip several times in the spring.

Part 3. Paris’s New WWI Memorial

Traveling through the countryside of France you’ve undoubtedly noticed some of the 30,000 monuments honoring those who “died for France” during the First World War, with the names of local citizens inscribe on them. Paris never had such an inscribed monument, perhaps because of the sheer number of those killed during or as a result of the war: 94,415 Parisians in all have been identified, based primarily on lists drawn up in each arrondissement in the years following the war.

The centennial was the occasion for the City of Paris to rectify that by erecting a 306-yard long memorial plaque on which is inscribed the names of each individual. Inaugurated on Nov. 11, it can be seen on the outer wall of Père Lachaise Cemetery along Boulevard de Ménilmontant.

The two major national monuments in Paris paying homage to soldier killed during the war are the above-mentioned Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe and the little-noticed monument To the Glory of the French Army 1914-1918 at Trocadero. One might add to that list the vast painting entitled Departure of the Hairy Ones [the nickname for French soldiers during WWI], August 1914, at the Gare de l’Est train station. It is the work of the American artist Albert Herter.

Part 4. The War on Slavery: The Abolition Route in Eastern France

Slavery is a crime against humanity. So decreed France in 2001, making it the first country to do so. What may seem to be a solely symbolic decree, akin to declaring the Jurassic era over, is actually a way of condemning the country’s own history with respect to slavery. Honoring the victims of slavery and the slave trade as well as major abolitionist figures of the 18th and 19th centuries, two dozen sites in eastern France and Switzerland form a constellation known as the Abolition of Slavery Route. This article concerns several of those sites in the Burgundy – Franche-Comté region in central eastern France.

Part 5. Hanukkah and the War of the Maccabees (an Excuse)

I’m sending this message at the end of Hanukkah, the Jewish wintertime festival of lights. The holiday celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem by Maccabean Jews after its desecration by Syrian-Greeks. There’s nothing French about Hanukkah, but it’s the opportunity for me to recall what Jews enjoy saying that nearly all Jewish holiday are about: They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.

And that, dear readers, is my timely excuse to end all this talk of war with recommendations for three Paris restaurants, recently tested.

Café Biergit. There’s been a little bit of Berlin in Batignolles (17th arr.) ever since the cheerful Café Biergit opened its doors last May. The bratwurst and currywurst are imported from Germany, as are the bar’s 60 Rhine-style beers. Potato salad and apfelstrudel as well… totally gemütlichkeit! All dishes under 14€. Open daily. (As recommended by Corinne LaBalme.)

Le Nom m’échappe translates as “The name escapes me” and I forgot it myself after first eating there a couple of years ago. But I returned last week and enjoyed the evening so much that I am certain not to forget it again. The tight seating at this welcoming restaurant by the Bourse (2nd arr.) makes it feel like a private club in which to partake in chef-owner Damien Moeuf’s elegant bistro cuisine. Forthcoming don’t-hesitate-to-ask-questions service is provided by his wife Catherine Moeuf and young waiter/natural wine adviser Fred (offered in fluent English, if necessary). Prices: 2 and 3 courses at lunch 19 or 23€, 2 or 3 courses at dinner about 38 and 50€, respectively, plus beverages. Closed weekends.

Kei. If Kei Kobayashi’s name sounded more French to our ears I suspect that his 2-star Michelin restaurant would have more English-speaking clients. As it is, he has lots of Japanese clients along with a faithful French clientele. While his restaurant is infused with the Japanese sense of precision and exquisite design, it also bears all of the hallmarks of the heights of French gastronomy. For whatever his passport, Kobayashi is an exceptional French chef. His cuisine is presented exclusively through a selection of fixed-price tasting menus, at lunch from 58 to 199€, at dinner from 110 to 220€, without beverages. Closed Sun. and Mon. An article about Kei Kobayashi and his restaurant near Les Halles (1st arr.) will be published on France Revisited this winter.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you’d like to join on the December 14 Belleau Wood, WWI and champagne daytrip from Paris.

You spotted the cat, didn’t you?

Happy travels always,

Gary

Gary Lee Kraut
Editor, France Revisited

The post Arcs of War and Triumph appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

This article, including three videos, examines several sights relative to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of the U.S. First Army in the fall of 1918: the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Romagne 14-18, the Romagne German Cemetery and the Montfaucon Monument. It also notes other monuments to battles and regiments of the offensive and provides information about visiting other WWI sights in and on the edge of Meuse, along with hotel and B&B suggestions.

The Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery

Far removed from the pathways of American visitors in France but located within the heart of the zone of the U.S. offensive of the fall of 1918 between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest, the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery of the First World War is the largest American Cemetery in Europe and may also be the most beautiful for the ways in which it gives visitors a combined sense of awe, serenity, natural balance and horror.

Entering on the east-west valley axis of this 130.5-acre site, the traveler can head north to the visitor center or south to the memorial. From the memorial, with its chapel and the names of 954 missing inscribed on its loggia wings, one stands above the 14,246 headstones that fan out and slope down to the valley before the landscape rises to a tree-framed lawn and the visitor center in the distance. From the visitor center, the eyes glides down that lawn to a circular pool before rising the headstone-dotted slope to the memorial and chapel on the ridge.

The graves, the memorial and the surrounding land honor the men of the U.S. First Army, under the command of John J. Pershing, who fell from fighting during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive which the Americans launched on September 26, 1918 and which continued until the Armistice of November 11, 1918. More than 1.2 million U.S. troops took part in the overall offensive, including many men whose names we associate with the Second World War and its aftermath, such as George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall and Harry Truman. The battles of the offensive caused 117,000 casualties, including 26,000 deaths. This cemetery is also the commemorative site for over 2,000 men who died on the front in the Vosges, in the Champagne region and in Northern Russia.

The American Battle Monuments Commission and David Bedford, superintendent of the cemetery and memorial at the time, allowed us to film this France Revisited Minute last year.

Among those buried in this cemetery, its nine Medal of Honor recipients demonstrate the diversity of individuals and actions considered by the U.S. government to represent valor in combat. They are:

– Erwin Bleckley, a pilot from Kansas, who took exceptional risk in order to deliver supplies to “the Lost Battalion” of the 77th division;
– Marcellus Chiles, a captain from Colorado, born in Arkansas, who, though seriously wounded, made sure that the follow-up command structure was in place before allowing himself to be evacuated;
– Matej Kocak, a Slovak-born marine sergeant who entered the army from Pennsylvania, who drove out the crew of a German machine gun nest with his bayonet; 18% of the U.S. Army during WWI was foreign born;

– Frank Luke, from Arizona, a second lieutenant of the 1st Pursuit Group, who distinguished himself in fighting in the air and on the ground;
– Oscar Millar, a major from California (born in Arkansas), who continued the charge through the front line despite multiple wounds;
– Harold Roberts, corporal, a tank driver from California who, understanding the choice, saved his tank companion rather than himself;
– William Sawelson, a sergeant from New Jersey, who died crawling through machine gun fire to bring water to a wounded comrade; his headstone is capped by a Star of David, while the others on this list lie under Latin Crosses;
– Fred Smith, a lieutenant colonel from North Dakota (born in Illinois), who, though wounded, continued to return enemy fire until the men of his party were out of danger and who then refused treatment in order to carry out a second attack;
– Freddie Stowers, a corporal from South Carolina, who was instrumental in attacking and dismantling machine gun trenches; awarded the Distinguished Service Cross at a time when African-American weren’t eligible for the Medal of Honor, he posthumously became, in 1991, among the first to be upgraded to the highest American military award for valor.

Displays inside the visitor center provide a bit of information about the American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC) and the cemetery itself but little context for the offensive and the role of the American Expeditionary Force. Further reading and explanation is advisable for understanding the battles that took place in this region. Geographical and logistical information about the Meuse-Argonne Offensive can be found on the ABMC website.

One hundred years on, cemeteries such as this are not merely remnants of war and places of remembrance. They are also sights that invite questions and offer lessons with respect to the world today. They are occasions to consider and discuss the vocabulary of yesterday—sacrifice, human fodder, valor, racial separation, patriotism, pacifism, interventionism, jingoism, Europe, a league of nations—as they apply today.

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, rue Rue du Général Pershing, 55110 Romagne-sous-Montfaucon. Tel. 03 29 85 14 18. The cemetery is open daily from 9am to 5pm, except December 25 and January 1.

The Romagne German Cemetery

Romagne-sous-Montfaucon was taken by the German Army in the initial phase of its invasion of France in 1914. It then remained an occupied village, removed from direct combat, for the next four years. During that time it served as a dressing station for soldiers wounded on the front. Much of Romagne’s wartime history is therefore that of an occupied village, with a growing German cemetery. It wasn’t until the start of the second phase of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in October 1918, that Romagne became a battlefield itself before being liberated by American troops on Oct 14.

Romagne-sous-Montfaucon was largely rebuilt in the 1920s, including the village church, which was rebuilt with American funds. The village now has a population of about 200.

Romagne 14-18

France has some exceptional WWI museums, each with a different presentation and tone as it seeks to inform and educate and provide insights into the events of the surrounding region and of an era of just over 100 years ago.

Among the most notable of these are the museums in Peronne, Meaux and Verdun. Additionally, Thiepval speaks particularly of the involvement of British troops, Vimy of Canadian forces, and the American Monument (Cote 204) at Château Thierry of American forces. Each of these was created through and continues to benefit from government funding and publicity.

I add to this list of exceptional museums the odd-man out, Romagne 14-18, a unique museum of character that was created by the private initiative of Jean-Paul de Vries. In Romagne 14-18 he presents a portion of his collection of over 80,000 artifact found within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the village and related to the wartime period.

Not only was there no government funding behind the creation of Romagne 14-18, but there is scarcely mentions of nations here. On the surface—a sometimes rusted, dirty, broken surface at that—de Vries’s enormous collection doesn’t try to explain or analyze or interpret the war other than lead the visitor to reflect on the life and perhaps death of soldiers. Beyond the surface, in its mass and in the specificity of its artifacts, Romagne 14-18 is at once a cemetery (of artifacts), a memorial (to those who used them) and an informal museum.

Son of a French father and a Dutch mother, de Vries, a dual citizen, now 50, first visited Romagne from Holland on a family camping trip when he was seven years old. He soon discovered a passion for finding and collecting artifacts of war. “At the time there were pieces everywhere,” he says, “and it was tolerated to go into the woods and bring home found elements.” (For many years now digging in the woods and the use of metal detectors has been formally prohibited.)

Asked when he first thought of displaying his finds, he says, “I’ve always exposed my collection.” At the age of 11 he brought pieces of it into school for show-and-tell, unaware that some of the shells he’d brought along were still potentially live. As he tells it, a classmate’s father, a policeman, came to the school that day and, seeing the collection, understood the danger. Soon the school was evacuated and the Dutch bomb squad confiscated the entire collection.

“After that I was no longer interested in arms,” he says (though there are plenty of rusted rifles and exploded shells in the collection). “It was the life of soldiers, their daily life, that interested me. A toothbrush, a cup, a shoe, that’s what life is; it isn’t a gun.”

From the age of 16 he begin driving down to Romagne with friends. “We came every Friday from the Netherlands for four or five years to search for wartime artifacts. There were dances, there were girls, but we especially came to search and dig.”

His pleasure for visiting Romagne and his passion for his growing collection let him to move to Romagne at age of 27. He hoped to find a job, but no was willing to hire him, perhaps, he says, because he suffers from ankylosing spondylitis (Bechterew’s disease). But visitors and residents were interested in his collection, and occasionally he would receive donations.

“I didn’t choose this passion,” he says. “It chose me. It was along my path. My passion is what attracted people.”

His passion and his path have unearthed wagon wheels, shattered shells, canteens, portraits of soldiers and villagers, wine bottles, an rifles, countless horseshoes and shovel heads, stretchers, artificial limbs, and so much more, all with a 5-kilometer (3-mile) radius of the village. Five kilometers, he has said, is the distance he was willing to carry back his finds. He continues to take to the fields in search of war debris and is often brought material found by others, either outside or in attics and cellars. He has a 48-star American flag that, long since set aside at the American Cemetery, was given to him by a former superintendent.

De Vries is nearly always on hand to greet visitors and answer questions. He speaks Dutch, French, English and German. He has become a substantial actor in the local economy in a village that is otherwise short on businesses. With no café or restaurant near the museum, which occupies and old barn near the church, he created a cafeteria to feed student groups and passing tourists. (He has two other barns full of objects in storage.)

During the school year de Vries receives many school groups: classes of 8-12-year-old French students and 13-15-year-old Dutch students. “It’s nice to work with children,” he says. “They get my message. When someone takes off his helmet one sees the face of a human being, no matter what the color of his skin or his religion or his nationality.”

“It isn’t the war itself that interests me, but all that’s behind it, from the life of soldiers to the private interests of the war economy.”

Within the mass of object that de Vries has assembled, one can well imagine the cruelty, the violence, the wounded and the dead. De Vries doesn’t wish to glorify war or valor. There no good guys or bad guys in this collection. There are no winners or loser. For him, no artifact is too insignificant because every item has a story to tell in the life of a soldier: whether a key, a helmet, a shell, a shoe, a bicycle wheel, a pick-axe, a piece of barbed wire, a photograph, a wine bottle or a button.

Romagne 14-18, 2 rue de l’Andon, 55110 Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, 03 23 85 10 14. Open daily except Tuesday, noon to 6pm. Closed December, January, February. Guided tours possible. Entrance: 5€, free for children under 12. The café and sandwich shop at the entrance to the museum is open according to the same schedule.

The Montfaucon American Monument

One of the initial objectives of the U.S. First Army engaged in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive was to take a hill six miles to the south at the village of Montfaucon-d’Argonne, where the Germans had created a fortified lookout.

The Montfaucon American Monument, a 200-foot granite Doric column topped by a symbol of liberty, now stands on that site. It commemorates the victory of the U.S. First Army in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive while also recognizing the actions of the French forces that fought prior to that on this front. The monument stands above a cratered, wooded landscape and the ruins of the former village church. After the war, the village was rebuilt nearby, removed from this immediate site. The observation deck, 234 steps up, offers a vast view of the former battle zone.

The monument was designed by John Russell Pope, who was also the architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..

It was dedicated on August 1, 1937, as part of the final phase of monument dedications to the Great War just two years before an even greater war was ignited in Europe. Among those participating at the inauguration, were General John Pershing as former leader of the American Expeditionary Force and as chairman of the ABMC; Marshal Philippe Pétain, the hero of Verdun whose disgrace would come with the Second World War, and French President Albert Lebrun, who was more or less held hostage throughout that coming war for his opposition to Pétain’s Vichy Government. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt also participated via a speech broadcast from overseas. A film of the dedication ceremony can be see here.

Montfaucon American Monument, 55270 Montfaucon-d’Argonne. The inside of the Montfaucon American Monument is open from 9am to 7pm March and April; 9am to 9pm May through September; 9am to 5pm October and November. Entrance is free. The outside can be seen year round. The monument is managed and maintained by staff at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.

Other monuments within a 25-minute drive

The Missouri Memorial in Cheppy, “erected by the State of Missouri in memory of its sons who died in France for humanity during the Great War 1917-1918.”

The Pennsylvania Memorial in Varennes-en-Argonne, on which is inscribed “In honor of her troops who served in the Great War among whom were the liberator of Varennes 1918 and in grateful appreciation of their service, this memorial is erected by the State of Pennsylvania 1927.” The memorial was designed by Thomas Atherton and Paul Cret. Varennes is known to the French as the place where Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and the royal family were held for the night after being arrested trying to flee the kingdom.

The Mound of Vauquois, whose cratered landscape speaks of mine warfare.

On the opposite side of the Argonne Forest, in Binarville (Marne), a marker and a monument indicate the site where Major Charles W. Whittlesey and his men of the 77th Division, known as “the Lost Battalion,” kept fighting despite being encircled by German forces. Of the 500 Americans who were encircled, about three-fifths were killed or wounded. Whittlesey, along with several other men of the battalion or of other units attempting to relieve them (including Erwin Bleckley noted above with respect to the cemetery), received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

– From Chatel-Chéhéry (Ardennes) one can take a walk in the woods in the footsteps of Sergeant York, a Medal of Honor recipient who became one of the most famous Americans soldiers for his wartime exploits in capturing a German machine nest of 132 soldier.

Other major WWI sights in Meuse

Visiting the region by car, one can see the sights in and around Romagne-sous-Montfaucon and many of those below over the course of two to three days:

In and around Verdun: Above all the Douaumont Ossuary, the nearby Verdun Memorial museum and the Forts of Douaumont and Vaux, followed, followed, time permitting, by the Victory Monument, the Underground Citadel and the Trench of the Bayonets (created with funding by an American donor).

In and around the Saint Mihiel Saliant: The Montsec American Monument and the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery. The Battle of Saint Mihiel, two weeks prior to the launching of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, was another major battle involving American as well as French troops. The terms “H hour” and “D day” are said to have been first used in planning for the attack on the Saint Mihiel Saliant. The cemetery actually lies just over the border from Meuse in Meurthe-et-Moselle.

Between Verdun and the Saint Mihiel Salient: The Eparges Ridge.

The official tourist site for the department of Meuse is www.meusetourism.com/en/.

See also The American Traveler and the First World One Sights of France.

Hotels and B&Bs in Meuse

Hostellerie du Château de Monthairons, a 4-star hotel in a 19th-century chateau, within a large park. The chateau, in the center of the region, was requisitioned by the American army during the war to serve as a hospital
Jardins de Mess, a 4-star hotel in Verdun.
Hôtel de Montaulbain, a 3-star hotel in Verdun.
La Maison Mirabeau, a B&B with guest table in Verdun.
Le Mont Cigale, a B&B with guest table in Vauquoi in the Argonne.

© 2018, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Over There: WWI Sights of the American Meuse-Argonne Offensive appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

Americans visiting the D-Day Landing Zone of Normandy quickly learn the invasion map by heart: the five thick arrows pointing toward Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches; the lines indicating the flight plan that dropped paratroopers and released gliders to the east and west of the zone; the grey band representing the joining of Allied forces throughout the zone and their push inland; the black arrow of the German counteroffensive around Falaise, and finally the victorious block of Allied grey up to the Seine River. Mission accomplished.

The movement on the ground was full of pitfalls, of course, but between the channel, the river and the sweeping color-coded movement of troops, the momentum of the Invasion of Normandy appears clear, even inevitable, whether your recognize the names of individual towns and villages or not.

A map of First World War battle zones is not as easy for American’s to grasp. Yet the vast majority of the American Expeditionary Force joined our Allies along the Western Front in France, with some in Belgium.

Brits may be more comfortable with the map of the Western Front of WWI because of proximity, because the Somme, Amiens, Ypres (Belgium) and the Marne still resonate with many, and because the Imperial War Museum in London continues to draw crowds. Many Canadians can situate Vimy Ridge because it speaks so clearly of the coming of age of a nation and because the monument there is the most stunning Allied war memorial in all of France. Australians know of Villers-Bretonneux.

But the map below of the Aisne-Marne Salient showing ground captured by American divisions after July 18, 1918, an essential element in the development not only of the war but of “the American Century,” speaks little to us…

… even though it’s shown on the most impressive American war monument in France, the American Monument on Hill/Côte 204 above Chateau-Thierry, 60 miles northeast of Paris.

History has never been America’s strongpoint, and our grasp of our own role in the First World War is no exception to that. We need more context and basic information than other participants of the Great War in order to begin to understand its significance. Thanks to the new little museum at the foot of the American Monument, context and information are now readily available on a daytrip or more from Paris.

The museum

The museum, like the monument above it, is the work of the American Battle Monuments Commission. A presentation space was created along with the monument in the late 1920s but it wasn’t furnished until now, as part of the overall restoration of the monument.

As it had at the Normandy American Cemetery on the eve of the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004 with respect to the Second World War and the Battle of Normandy, the ABMC saw the need provide American visitors with an overview of the American intervention in the First and battles in the Aisne region of France on the 100th anniversary of our participation in major combat during that war. After all, pristine cemeteries and imposing monuments and pristine cemeteries aren’t intended merely to serve as dramatic backdrops for the occasional speech by a government official but are to be visited, honored, understood, questioned and contemplated year-round.

Despite its modest size, or rather because of it, the new museum plays its role to greater effect than the museum in Normandy. Whereas the ABMC’s Normandy museum seeks to direct and frame the visitor’s emotions, the Chateau-Thierry museum appears to have no agenda other than to provide visitors with context and an introduction, where much is needed, to the Great War and to American involvement in it.

The information is brief, just enough to get the uninformed visitor curious. This is not a roll call of the dead but of the situations and events of our involvement in the war: the German attack on Belgium and France, trench warfare, American isolationism, American interventionism, “Lafayette, we are here!,” the arrival of green American troops in 1917, Pershing’s plan, an American army under American command, the German offensive of 1918, American entrance into action in around Chateau-Thierry, the Battle of Belleau Wood nearby, “The Rock of the Marne,” photographs and posters, the Armistice, the death toll, and the creation of the ABMC, of cemeteries and monuments.

The presentation can be visited in 30 minutes. This isn’t where one studies the war, rather where one finds the spark to understand an essential period in American history and in our relationship with the world as a global power… and to begin to understand the significance of the monument and of the map shown on it.

The presentation ends by giving credit to Paul Cret (1876-1945), the French-American architect (and veteran) who designed or oversaw the design of many WWI monuments and memorials in France, including full involvement in the American Monument here and the chapel at the Aisne-Marne Cemetery five miles away. The shout-out to Cret is well deserved. Though his name isn’t known beyond architectural circle, Cret’s work is familiar to many: the Rodin Museum and layout of the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, the Indianapolis Central Library, the Cincinnati Union Station, the Detroit Institute of Art, the main building and campus layout of the University of Texas at Austin, the headquarters of the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., and others.

The monument

The American Monument fulfills the four major characteristics that the AMBC sought in the 1920s to honor the American presence in the war: it’s built on the site of a significant battle; it’s visible from afar; it has a commanding view of a zone covered by American military operations, and it is accessible to the public.

(In addition to the American Monument at Chateau-Thierry, the two other major WWI monuments in France also fulfill these criteria: the Montsec Monument nine miles from the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery, and the Montfaucon Monument several miles from the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. Both monuments are further east, in the Meuse region.)

The view from the monument shows what a strategic position this was, on a hill known as Côte 204 according to its wartime designation, overlooking the Marne River and the flat land beyond it that. We are near the southern end of the reach of Germany’s Spring Offensive of 1918, which is as close as their troops would come to Paris during the war.

In 1914 the First Battle of the Marne had seen British and French troops stop the German momentum that had swept relentlessly through Belgium and deep into northern and northeastern France. Now, in 1918, the Americans, first under French command and soon under their own, joined the fray in legendary fighting including the Third Battle of the Aisne (May 27-June 6), the Battle of Belleau Wood (June 6-26, 1918) and the Second Battle of the Marne (July 15-Aug. 6), where the 3rd Infantry Division would earn its nickname “The Rock of the Marne.” Those and other battles along the Western Front would set in motion a complete shift in momentum that would overwhelm German forces several months later.

Having enter along a long driveway, the visitor arrives before a rigid colonnade in a tight, unyielding formation. Against this backdrop of a classical theater of sorts, female allegorical figures of France and of the United States stand center stage. They hold hands as though standing severely united before a tomb in impassive echo of the colonnade itself. The figures are the work Alfred-Alphonse Bottiau, a French sculptor who worked with Cret on a number of ABMC monuments.

Division numbers, insignias and names of battles in the region are inscribed on the monument. They may not be as evocative as Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword, but perhaps your curiosity will be awakened to learn more about the origin or evolution of U.S. divisions, their insignias and engagements. Among them:
– the 1st “Big Red One” Division whose 2nd Battalion, 16th Regiment became the face of Americans in France when it paraded through Paris to Lafayette’s grave on July 4, 1917;
– the 2nd “Indianhead” Division, whose insignia of an Indian in profile with headdress was derived from an emblem a driver had painted on his truck;
– the 26th “Yankee” Division, drawn from units from New England;
– the 28th “Keystone” Division formed from units of the Pennsylvania National Guard;
– the 32nd “Red Arrow Division” from the Wisconsin and Michigan National Guards;
– the 42nd “Rainbow” Division drawn from units that stretched “like a rainbow” across 26 states and the District of Columbia;
– the 77th “Statue of Liberty” Division from New York City,
– and the 93rd “Blue Helmet” Division, among others. The 93rd was an African-American segregated division whose regiments (269th Harlem Hellfighters of New York, the 270th Black Devils of Illinois, the 372nd Infantry Regiment) were welcomed as fighting forces by French commanders (who issued them blue French helmets) at a time when American commanders saw African-Americans as a labor-only force.

After a visit to the museum, the map of American military operations below the eagle on the eastern side of the monument may still be hard to grasp, but it will be coming into focus as you head next to Belleau Wood and the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery.

Practical tips for visiting the area

A day of WWI touring in the immediate area of Chateau-Thierry can include the American Monument, Belleau Wood and the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery over the course of several hours. It’s then possible to pursue the theme of WWI sights with a visit to the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, 17 miles northeast of the Aisne-Marne, and the Quentin Roosevelt Fountain and crash site several miles further east.

Or, after visiting the sights around Chateau-Thierry, visitors can shift their attention to wine by visiting Marne Valley champagne producers in the area.

The Curious Tasting & Travel Club organizes occasional private and semi-private tours of the Chateau-Thierry area for a morning of war touring followed by an afternoon of champagne winery touring.

See Chateau-Thierry area’s official tourist site for information about sights, activities and commemorative events in the area. The tourist office occupies the ground floor of the France-America Friendship House.

© 2018, Gary Lee Kraut

The post ABMC WWI Museum Opens at Chateau-Thierry’s American Monument appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Little to no planning is required other than knowing where to rent bicycles if you don’t have one of your own. Trains in most directions are frequent enough that you don’t even have to worry much about timing your departure (unless there’s a strike). Many trains outside of rush hour (you’ll be going in the opposite direction) accept bicycles in a special compartment.

The biking route

The heart of this daytrip is a 9-10-mile ride in each direction through the Forest of Compiegne between the palace of Compiègne and the castle of Pierrefonds. These two notable sights are connected by two major routes through the National Forest of Compiegne, with many possible detours.

The forest covers about 35,000 acres, much of it former royal hunting ground. The landscape is fairly flat with a few minimal rises. Most of the paths you’ll ride on are paved. The forest is thick with oak and beech, and perhaps you’ll glimpse a deer or a boar or a roe. Roe are small European deer, like the original Bambi (created by an Austrian), which Disney transformed into a North American mule deer.

Of the major biking routes, the southern route through the forest allows for a stop in the village of Saint Jean aux Bois, with its abbey church and picturesque houses, while the northern route goes by the village of Moulins, with its church. I recommend starting with the southern route then taking the northern route on the return since that would then allow you to make a last-minute decision to make a 3-mile detour to the Glade of the Armistice, time and biking energy permitting. The glade is a clearing on the northern edge of the forest where the armistice ending combat of the First World War was signed. Add to this a mile’s ride from the Compiègne train station to/from the edge of the forest and you get a cycling day of 20-25 miles, depending on your route. It’s therefore a moderate ride, and for those with athletic teens a family-friendly daytrip.

How much time you spend visiting the three major sights on this route, or simply admiring them from the outside, is up to you.

This biking map can be downloaded. Your point of departure, the Compiègne train station (Gare SNCF), is at the upper left of that map.

Here’s a wider view of the region:

The train from Paris

The train between Paris’s North Station (Gare du Nord) and Compiegne takes 48 to 75 minutes, with departures every hour or so. Tickets are about 31€ round-trip. They can be purchased online, at any train (not metro or RER) station or at the North Station at the last minute. I can’t guarantee that they’ll be available at the last minute, but these trains tend not to fill outside of rush hour (you’ll be going in the opposite direction) and special events in Compiegne, unless a conductors’ strike causes everyone to pile onto the one running train. The schedule for specific days can be searched on the site of the French railways company SNCF. Trains idled due to strike are generally indicated as such a day in advance.

If you’ve rented a bike in Paris or have your own, then you’ll need to know which trains have a bike compartment. In that case, look for the appropriate indication in the pull-down tab describing each departure.

As you arrive at the track, you’ll see a bicycle symbol on the appropriate wagon, but don’t hesitate to ask if you don’t see it. Communication tip for those who don’t speak French: Find a train official on the track, say “Bonjour, excusez-moi,” point to your bicycle then to the train. A shrug of the shoulders and the monkey-like sound où, meaning where, ought to get you pointed to the right compartment.

Bike rental in Compiegne

It’s easy to rent bikes in Compiegne through the rental company Picardie Forêts Vertes, operated by Vincent, with whom you can write to or speak with in English. The booking process and other details are explained in English on the website. Vincent encourages people to reserve their bikes 48 hours or more in advance, but he can often accommodate requests made less than 24 hours in advance, particularly on weekdays. You’ll also make arrangements to drop off the bikes at the end of the day.

A VTC or VTT can be rented for 20€ per day, an electric bike for 25€. Tandems, baby seats and trailers for small children are also available. Helmets, locks and maps are provided. Bring an ID as a deposit. Though the typical rental season runs April through October, you may also contact Vincent in advance about rentals during the off-season.

Compiegne also has an inexpensive bike-share system called Vélotic, with a bike station at the train station. Rentals are 2€ for two days.

Lunch options

I’m not much of a planner when it comes to a short ride involving two towns, as with this ride. You can always find a bakery and cafés in Compiegne and Pierrefords, wherever hunger strikes. My own preference is to purchase a sandwich or more from a bakery in Pierrefonds or have lunch in a café there. If you’re more of a planner you can bring a picnic from Paris or purchase picnic goodies at the center of Compiegne. Or if you set out late in the morning from Paris you enjoy a café or restaurant lunch in Compiegne before setting off through the forest for the afternoon. The Palace of Compiegne also has a nice tea room. Bring along water for the ride in any case. On your return to the heart of Compiegne at the end of the day you might stop into a bakery and chocolate shop to reward yourself for a ride well done.

Sightseeing and touring

There are three notable sights to see along this route: the Palace of Compiegne, the Castle of Pierrefonds and the Glade of the Armistice. You’ll have a fine biking day without going inside any of these, but each is worthwhile and informative should you decide to enter.

The palace is closed Tuesdays and the castle is open daily. Both are closed Jan. 1, May 1 and Dec. 25. The glade is open daily but if making this your final stop note that last admission is at 5:30PM for a 6PM closing. They’re all open daily, except for some holidays. See their respective websites for more schedule details.

As a town with a major palace, Compiègne itself makes for a pleasing daytrip from Paris even if you aren’t interested in biking. So if there are any non-bikers in your travel group they can train out to Compiegne with you and pleasantly live their own touring lives as the others go out biking. The center of town is a 10-minute walk on the opposite side of the Oise River from the train station.

Crossing the bridge you might notice to the right the ruins of a tower now (sometimes) called the Joan of Arc Tour since it existed at the time of Joan’s downfall. On May 23, 1430, having come to help defend the Compiegne from attack by the Bungundians, she was captured and eventually sold to the English and taken to Rouen, where she was tried, condemned and burnt at the stakes. That history—and the late 19th-century inclination to honor it—explains the statue of Joan on the town’s central square in front of City Hall. A local Joan of Arc festival is held the second to last weekend in May.

More eye-catching than the statue is the flamboyant façade of Town Hall, built at the turn of the 16th century. It is one of France’s most remarkable town halls for the way it represents the transition between Gothic and Renaissance architecture in the kingdom. Louis XII, who reigned 1498-1515, rides at the center. (The Loire Valley cyclist might recognize him from the entrance to the Castle of Blois.) Town Hall’s Bancloque, an ancient bell first installed in 1303, still manages a dull thud and dong. The Compiegne Tourist Office is here. If you don’t yet have a map of cycling routes for this daytrip you can pick one up here, along with a town map and other information.

As far as tourism goes, though, the palace is the town’s main attraction.

The Palace of Compiegne

Successive royal castles existed here since the 5th century, beginning with the earliest dynasty of rulers, the Frankish Merovingian kings. What’s seen today is a royal and imperial palace that began with a complete redesign and rebuilding in the latter half of the 18th century by Louis XV’s chief architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Gabriel’s other major works include the Petit Trianon and the Opera at Versailles, Place de la Concorde and adjacent Hôtels de Crillon and de la Marine in Paris, and Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux.

The Palace of Compiegne as it stands today is a major monument to the architectural style of the latter part of Louis XV’s reign (1715-1774) and to decorative styles over the 100 years that followed.

On our last biking excursion we didn’t go inside but we did stop to watch a parade by the palace.

Here, in 1770, Louis XV’s grandson and heir to the throne, the 16-year-old future Louis XVI, was first introduced to his fiancé Marie-Antoinette of Austria. It wasn’t the kings Louis who got the most use from the palace, however (they continued to primarily hold court at Versailles), rather the emperors Napoleon. In 1810, Napoleon I met his second wife, Marie-Antoinette’s niece Marie-Louise, at Compiègne, but the first Napoleon generally preferred Fontainebleau.

Compiègne is primarily associated with lengthy stays by Napoleon III, who reigned 1852-1870, and his imperial court. When not reigning from the Tuileries Palace in Paris, this was his Versailles, where he would gather the Court for a month or more during the autumn hunting season in the forest that you’ll soon be biking through.

If the weather turns sour while in Compiegne, you can always forgo biking and spend the afternoon visiting the palace and the town.

Warning: If you do lock up your bikes outside and decide to take a quick tour of the palace, you may soon fall under its charms and find yourself drawn into spending a few hours here: visiting palace rooms that give an excellent lesson in the decorative styles associated with the eras of Louis XV and XVI and Napoleon I and III; strolling in the park; lounging in the tearoom; visiting a museum dedicated to the Second Empire (Napoleon III) and then a large collection of horse-drawn carriages and vehicles from the 17th to the 20th centuries, including early motorized vehicles and bicycles. A biking daytrip can soon turn into an excursion to the Palace of Compiegne.

Entrance to the park is free if you’d just like to lock your bikes up outside to enjoy an impressive view the palace from that side. But if the weather holds and you still think of this as a biking excursion, either limit your time in the palace or save your Compiegne-only daytrip for another day. Then cycle on past the palace, down Avenue Royale, with stately mansions to your right and a horseracing track coming up on your left.

The Castle of Pierrefonds

At a leisurely pace with a village stop along the way you’ll arrive in Pierrefonds an hour or two later. Or you could get lost, as a friend and I did on a distracted trek through the woods, and nonchalantly arrive three hours later.

As with the Palace of Compiegne, you can lock up your bikes to go inside the Castle of Pierrefonds, or not. Since there’s less to see inside, the interior can be visited in less than an hour. From Jan 11-Sept. 16, 2018 there’s an exhibition of castle graffiti, particularly during the First World War, when the castle was requisitions to house French soldiers.

Here’s a drone view of the castle:

The feudal castle of the late 14th century was mostly dismantled in the 17th, leaving ruins to be admired by the likes of Victor Hugo and others who enjoyed exercising their imaginations of medieval time. Among them was the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the man behind many of the state-sponsored restorations of the reign of Napoleon III. The emperor’s affection for Compiegne and for hunts in the forest would have led him along some of the same paths that just brought you to Pierrefonds. He commissioned Viollet-le-Duc to rebuild the castle, and the architect was pleased to have such an open hand in creating an idealized fortified castle, drawbridge (currently under restoration) and all. While not authentically medieval, it is nevertheless an imposing sight standing on a hill above this quaint little town of about 1860 Pétrifontains, as its inhabitants are called.

Whether entering the castle or not, this daytrip calls for a relaxing pause in a café by the town square below it or by the lake.

The Glade of the Armistice

A stop at the Glade of the Armistice (Clairière de l’Armistice) adds just three miles to the ride back to the Compiegne train station. Be sure to have a detailed map of the forest so as to not miss the point at which you’ll break off from the main Pierrefonds-Compiegne biking route to head to the Clarière.

In addition to the three extra miles, count on 30 to 60 minutes to visit this reminder of the armistice ending combat of the First World War and of the French surrender ending the Battle of France in the initial phases of the Second World War.

A dining car put into service in 1914, shortly before the start of the war, was placed at the disposal of French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander in 1918, and brought on November 8 of that year to the Rethondes railway junction in a secluded clearing on the edge of the forest. It was here that Foch and British First Lord of the Admirality Rosslyn Wemyss, together representing the victorious Allies, met with Matthias Erzberger, who led the German delegation, for the purpose of agreeing to an signing an armistice to end combat after more than four years of war. The signing took place three days after the parties first met, with the armistice set to take effect “at 11 o’clock, on the 11th day, of the 11th month.”

The original railway car was presented in the courtyard of the Invalides in Paris from 1922 to 1927 before being placed back in the glade in the forest.

It was in this same clearing in that same car that Adolf Hitler delighted in having France surrendered to Germany on June 22, 1940. The car was then taken to Germany to be proudly displayed in Berlin. It was moved again later in the war to protect it from aerial bombing, but nevertheless went up in flames in 1945. Whether the fire was due to a bombing raid or by intentional German destruction is debated. The museum here itself states that the fire was “accidental.” A replica of the wagon as it was on November 11, 1918, now stands in the clearing, along some original monuments from the 1920s, including a statue of Marshal Foch. A small museum recounts these events through photographs and artefacts.

The last train to Paris

The last train to Paris from Compiegne generally departs at about 8:30PM.

© 2018, Gary Lee Kraut

For further information see the following websites:
Picardie Forêts Vertes (Compiegne bike rental company), Vélotic (Compiegne bike share), Forest of Compiegne biking map, Compiegne Tourist Office, Palace of Compiegne, Castle of Pierrefonds, Glade of the Armistice, SNCF train schedule and reservations. Compiegne and Pierrefonds are within the department (sub-region) of Oise.

The post Day Trip from Paris: A Compiègne-Pierrefonds Biking Excursion appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

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.

The post The American Traveler and the First World War Sights in France appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

The leaves have mostly fallen from the vines. Here and there small bunches of grapes, unripe at harvest time, remain. Sweet now but abandoned, they are the remnants of the pinots—noirs and meuniers—fermenting in vats of Olivier Belin’s champagne installation outside Chateau-Thierry, 55 miles east of Paris in the Marne Valley.

Further up the valley, the river flows into the heart of the champagne-growing area, past the town of Epernay and the Mountain of Reims. That’s the area that most travelers think of when considering a champagne wine excursion. Belin’s vineyards don’t lie within the border of the historic Champagne region, rather in historic Picardy, but the appellation for the world’s most evocative sparkling wine extends beyond the historic borders.

The western portion of the Marne Valley is primarily pinot meunier territory, the lesser known of the three major grapes of the overall champagne winegrowing zone. Meunier represents about one third of the wine that is assembled in various proportions into making champagne. It is often described as the workhorse grape, pulling the plow to add body for the more refined chardonnay (30% of the growing area) and the more noble and familiar pinot, noir (38% of the growing area). To hear some producers in the Reims-Epernay area speak of pinot meunier you’d think that they were embarrass to be pressing it at all, though press it they do. Given little respect as a grape on its own, meunier is the Rodney Dangerfield of champagne grapes.

Yet in this portion of the Marne Valley, within 10 miles east and southwest of the town of Chateau-Thierry, where 70% of the vines are pinot meunier, meunier holds its head high. Rather, its growers hold their heads high. Among them are the 40 grower-producers that form an association of Marne Valley winegrowers called the Association des Ambassadeurs du Terroir et du Tourisme en Vallée de la Marne, of which Belin is co-president.

“We are artisan winegrowers,” says Belin. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re tinkerers. Our cellars aren’t necessarily beautiful but it’s the work of the winegrower that one visits here.”

Indeed, this not zone of the sprawling chalk cellars, some of them medieval, even Roman quarries, as one can visit in the city of Reims. This is not the zone of vast underground installations as found in Epernay. This is not a zone of grand cru and premier cru vineyards. For the few (if growing number of) American visitors to this portion of the Marne Valley, the Chateau-Thierry area is less known for champagne than for the WWI battleground of Belleau Wood and the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery beside it. A tremendous American Monument overlooks the point in the valley where the German thrust of 1918 was stopped. The monument also overlooks a slope of champagne vineyard. So a taste of champagne or a deeper initiation into sparkling wine can be combined with war touring in the area.

Fact and figures about Champagne production and consumption

For the American consumer, selecting a champagne comes down to considering the labels of four or five brands, perhaps a few more at your more Francophile wine shop. Yet the champagne winegrowing region is home to 15,800 grape growers and 12,000 brand names. Only a handful of brands, those with large advertising budgets, reach most states of the union, though over the past decade medium and small houses and grower-producers have slowly been making their way into major markets.

More than half (52%) of all champagne is consumed in France. That doesn’t mean that the French are more festive than others, rather that champagne isn’t reserved for festivity in France but also serves as an aperitif at many gatherings, both casual and formal, social and festive. While bottles are available in a wide price range, there are plenty of worthy champagne available at under 30€, including a significant direct producer-to-consumer market offering good value bubbly for under 20€, as is the case of many of the champagne produced in the Marne Valley.

Even in France Marne Valley champagne is little known. Most people are unaware that the growing area extend this close to Paris, this close to brie cheese territory. Nevertheless, some of the grapes from these vineyards go into well-known labels. Belin, for example, sells a portion of his harvest to négotiants manupulants who buys grapes, juice or wine to make champagne on their own premises that they then market under their own label. All of the major champagne houses work that way. They may own some vineyards but need far more grapes than their own can provide.

Belin himself is a récoltant manipulant or grower-producer, meaning that he makes champagne on his own premises from the grapes of his own vineyards and under his own label.

The third major type of player in the wine business is the cooperatives, which produce champagne collectively, then sell them under a collective or individual label. There exist in the growing region 320 champagne houses and 39 cooperatives along with an astounding 4461 grower-producers, according to the Comité Champagne, the champagne trade association.

Last year, the U.S. ranked second in champagne’s export market (20.5 million bottles) after the U.K. (34.2 million) and before Germany and Japan (just under 12 million). Meanwhile, there are currently about 1.4 billion bottles in storage in the region.

Those are impressive numbers, but the most telling indicator of the difference between the French and the export markets is that in France 43% of champagnes bottles sold are produced by grower-producers or cooperatives whereas in the export market only 13% comes from those players. In other words, you’ll likely need to travel to discover them.

Champagne Gérard et Olivier Belin

As is often the case with small producers, Belin’s father and grandfather were grape farmers, selling their crop to others. His father, Gérard, then began selling champagne through a cooperative before producing champagne from his own grapes, under his own name. Having trained as an oenologist, Olivier began making wine with his father in 1997: tending the vines, harvesting and pressing, assembling wines, dosing sugar. He took firm hold on the reins of the business about five years ago while he continues to consult his father for his opinion whether in his vineyards or in the cellar. The label of Champagne Belin indicates both names. Olivier’s wife Katty is also involved in the family business.

Olivier Belin’s grandparents owned four hectares (just under 10 acres), to which his parents added two more. Belin now produces about 40,000 bottles per year, 60% of which he sells directly to consumers. The average grower-producer in the area makes about 20,000 bottles per year. Altogether the association’s members produce about one million bottles per year. That’s a drop in the champagne bucket consider that 310 million bottles were sold in 2015 for the entire winegrowing region. (Overall, Marne Valley vineyards represent about 10% of the overall champagne vineyard zone.).

With a hectare of champagne-grape vineyard now selling for 1-1.2 million euros, grape growers may be sitting on a gold mine, but it isn’t land wealth that one encounters in the area, rather the work and passion of these grower-producers.

To visit Belin’s installations and taste his sparkling wines in his little tasting room is to glimpse the passion of an artisan involved in his product from start to finish and from tradition to renewal. It’s the opportunity to understand the choices that winegrowers make in producing their product range. Belin, for example, appreciates the use of some oak barrel aging in his assembly. The men and women in the winegrowers association that Belin co-presides may not be tinkerers, but in encountering several of them it becomes clear that they enjoy the occasional risk of the fiddling with their grape juice, such as to create “micro-cuvées” of only a few thousand bottles.

Belin’s champagnes and those of many other winegrowers in the Marne Valley are proof that proper champagnes for celebration or for a friendly aperitif can be found for under 22€. However, it isn’t so much the price of champagne that makes visiting these local worthwhile (though Paris residents might want to take the opportunity to stock up) but the opportunity to discover the humanity behind the production of a world’s most famous sparkling wine.

Furthermore, there’s a fascinating diversity of champagnes produced in the Marne Valley, within their natural reliance on pinot meunier. On a daytrip from Paris—and certainly one can stay longer—the wise wine traveler will visit two or three winegrowers over the course of the day or the afternoon (if combined with war touring) to appreciate the diversity of approaches in the area.

Champagne Marteaux

A bench on the hill above the village of Azy-sur-Marne, four miles southwest of Chateau-Thierry, offers a view of the amphitheater of fields surrounding the village. This one of the prettiest views in the valley, though few come this way. It isn’t the view that might lead a traveler here so much as a visit to winegrower Olivier Marteaux.

Previously, polyculture was a way of in the area; farming meant wheat, corn and beets. Those crops are still grown in the area but vineyards is what one most notices when driving through the valley.

Olivier Marteaux’s ancestors were polyculture farmers until the 1950s. His grandfather then developed a wine nursery, selling young vines to grape farmers. In the 1980s the family began keeping their vines so as to grow grapes themselves. They made champagne with the local cooperative before eventually using their grapes exclusively for their own production. With 9 hectares (22.2 acres) of vines—65% pinot meunier, 20% chardonnay, 15% pinot noir—Marteaux currently produces 40-50,000 bottles per year.

Marteaux concocts what might be called connoisseur’s champagnes in the sense that they provide a deep, rich taste of terroir that one doesn’t always associated with bubbly. His vintages have been aged for at least six years prior to disgorgement and typically have low sugar content, such as the 2008 extra brut with 2 grams of sugar for a wine that’s 60% pinot meunier, 20% chardonnay and 20% pinot noir.

Among his four types of champagne he makes a rose de saignée, 100% pinot noir from a single parcel. Its tart fruitiness of Marteaux’s rose may not reflect what we’re accustomed to a rose champagne, but it is a taste that will give the wine-curious traveler a sense of the variety available in champagne wines in general and in the Marne Valley’s in particular. A 100% pinot noir champagne is a rarity in these parts and it’s interesting to compare Marteaux’s rose with Belin’s rosé de saignée, which is 100% pinot meunier.

Saignée is the more erudite way of producing rose since it requires precise pressing in order to obtain the proper color from the skin. In champagne production the preferred and allowed method for making rose is by adding red still wine (from pinot meunier or pinot noir) in assembling the wine so as to adjust the color along with the taste. Belin also makes a rosé d’assemblage. More than 90% of rose champagne gets its color that way.

Marteaux’s wife Laetitia if fully involved in the business, just as is Katty Belin is involved in the Belin family business. These are truly family affairs, which is the case of the vast majority of members of the local winegrowing association.

The Champagne et Vous wine festival

A great opportunity to meet producers on an easy daytrip from Paris is at the annual wine festival Champagne et Vous (Champagne and You) organized by the Marne Valley winegrowers association. The weekend festival takes place in late October in Chateau-Thierry on the site of the ruins of Thierry’s chateau. It’s a largely local event that invites the area’s population to understand the role of winemaking in the local economy and affirm the place of these grower-producers in the champagne-making landscape.

See Champagne et Vous for further information about the festival including portraits and addresses of participating winegrowers.

Addresses and further information

Champagne Gérard et Olivier Belin
30A Aulnois
02400 Essômes-sur-Marne
Tel. 03 23 70 88 43

Champagne Marteaux
6 Route de Bonneil, 02400 Azy-sur-Marne
Tel. 03 23 82 92 47

The Chateau-Thierry Tourist Office, situated near the House of France-America Friendship (see this article) can help those travelers who arrive with any prior appointments but would like to make last-minute arrangements to visit Marne Valley winegrowers.

For further information about war touring and other sights in the area, also see this article on France Revisited.

A B&B and lunch suggestion: Chateau de la Marjolaine
Two miles southwest of Chateau-Thierry, Jean-Pierre and Bruno have transformed this manor house by the river into an attractive B&B, restaurant and champagne bar.
27 Hameau d’Aulnois
02400 Essômes sur Marne
Tel. 03 23 69 77 80 or 06 60 39 98 79

© 2016, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Wine Travel: Respect for Pinot Meunier in Marne Valley Champagnes appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Château-Thierry, 55 miles east of Paris along the Marne River, benefited from the dedication of Reverend Julian Wadsworth, delegate of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his wife in their efforts to honor the memory of fallen soldiers while assisting residents of Château-Thierry and the surrounding villages.

This is an area where American forces played a significant role along with our British and particularly French allies beginning in the spring of 1918 in countering the final major German offensives and pushing them back and to eventual surrender and signature of the armistice of November 11, 1918. The following October, the Wadsworths purchased the shell-ridden Hôtel de l’Elephant in Château-Thierry in order to create what Julian Wadsworth would refer to as “a war memorial” and “a community house of friendliness.”

Known as the Maison de l’Amitié Franco-Américaine (MAFA), the House of French-American Friendship, it provided day care and nursing services, a free circulating library and reading room, a war museum, tech instruction in the use of wireless telegraph and radio-telephone, the organization of Boy Scouts and Camp-fire girls and a social club for girls, while also supporting cultural exchanges and events in English and in French.

The MAFA “afford[ed] an ideal opportunity for closer acquaintance and the making of abiding friendship between the American, English and French peoples,” according to a pamphlet produced under the direction of Wadsworth in 1925. Entitled “A War Memorial: A Community House of Friendliness,” the pamphlet explains:

“Already the French Government had asked the Methodists to aid with relief for the refugees who were returning to the devastated homes. Thirty-two villages were assigned to them. It was while thinking of the aid which the Board of Foreign Missions in New York had offered for the devastated areas of France that the thought came of enlarging this temporary material assistance and making a more enduring monument which would a Memorial worthy of the soldiers whose graves are in France. The gift of the Methodist Episcopal Church to Château-Thierry should be more than a passing gift of material relief. It should be an enduring monument of happiness, built out of the desolation of war. It must be a loving service for those who are still living in the war-scarred villages of the Valley of the Marne.” (The full text of that brochure can be found here.)

In 1930 the Wadsworths donated the MAFA to the city. While it continued its vocations for decades, its increasingly dilapidated state led it to being closed in 2000.

This year, on the eve of its November 11 Armistice Day / Remembrance Day / Veterans Day commemorations, the town of Château-Thierry inaugurated a new building on the same location, now calling it Maison de l’Amitié France-Amerique (translated on the plaque by its entrance as the House of France-American Friendship). The square out front had long been re-baptized Place des Etats-Unis (Square of the United States).

While the new building doesn’t as actively serve the lofty goals of the Wadsworths’ original project of the 1920s, it nevertheless reaffirms Château-Thierry’s with the United States.

The inaugural ceremony was led by U.S. Ambassador to France Jane D. Hartley and Mayor of Château-Thierry Jacques Krabal, accompanied by local and regional dignitaries in the presence of about 200 Castelthéodoriciens, as citizens of the town are called.

Rather than recount the history of the war or the American involvement in 1918 in the Third Battle of the Aisne, the Battle of Château-Thierry and the Second Battle of the Marne, the MAFA houses on its second floor an exhibition focusing on the life and death of Quentin Roosevelt. Son of Theodore Roosevelt and his second wife Edith, Quentin was shot down by German planes at the age of 20 during aerial combat over France on July 14, 1918, 17 miles northeast of here.

Quentin and his brothers Ted Jr., Archie and Kermit all served in WWI. Quentin was originally buried by the German army in the village of Chamery, where his plane crashed. In 1955 his remains were removed to the Normandy American Cemetery, to be re-laid to rest beside those of Ted Jr., who fought in WWII. The oldest American soldier and highest ranking officer to land by sea in Normandy (Utah Beach) on D-Day June 6, 1944, Ted Jr. who died of a heart attack five weeks into the invasion.

For more about Quentin Roosevelt, read Quentin Roosevelt: The Most Famous American Killed in France in WWI.

The ground floor of the new MAFA is occupied by the Château-Thierry Tourist Office. For visitors who need logistical assistance or who arrive without firm plans for their day, it’s a good first place to stop in order to obtain information about war touring in the surrounding region. For more about sights and memorials related to the American involvement in WWI, including Belleau Wood, the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, and the American Monument of Château Thierry see this photolog.

Happily, war touring in these parts can also go hand in hand with wine touring—and not just any wine but champagne. Though Château-Thierry is located in the administrative region of Picardy and the department of Aisne, 16 miles from the border of the Champagne region (actually called Champagne-Ardenne), its surroundings lie within the champagne appellation.

As indicated above the entrance to the MAFA, the Chateau-Thierry area represents “the gates to champagne.” The tourist office is therefore well armed to advise visitors on how and where to visit champagne producers within a 20-minute drive east or west along the Marne, and they can call ahead to make last-minute appointments with grower-producers. (An article about champagne producers of this portion of the Marne Valley is coming soon.)

Finally, in keeping with the MAFA’s historical role as a center for cultural exchanges and learning, there is a space for temporary exhibitions and a room where children can come to learn English.

The MAFA is not a destination in itself, but the starting point for further explorations in this once war-torn, still champagne-filled stretch of the Marne River.

With time and interest, one might take a stroll to see the admirable facades of the theater, city hall and food market on the town’s central square and to look up towards the ramparts of the chateau occupied over 1000 years ago by a certain King Thierry IV before the Counts of Champagne took control of the region. Some medieval ruins still remain behind the ramparts.

The town’s major historical sight, involving neither champagne nor war, is its Hôtel Dieu, the former central hospital with a rich collection of works received during its centuries as a religious institution. There’s also a museum dedicated to 17th-century fable writer Jean de La Fontaine.

For outdoor entertainment, an enjoyable, family-friendly birds of prey show takes place April-September beside the chateau ruins, where, among others, a North American bald eagle takes flight.

Maison de l’Amitié France-Amérique / Château-Thierry Tourist Office, 2 place des Etats-Unis, 02400 Château-Thierry. Tel. 03 23 83 51 14.

© 2015, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Château-Thierry Reaffirms Its Bond with the United States appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Kraut will be exploring France from five different angles during his upcoming lectures. He’ll be speaking about American war memories in France, with an emphasis on Normandy, at the Alliance Française de Doylestown, PA (in French) on Feb. 18 and the Alliance Française de Washington, D.C. (in English) on Feb. 25; about culinary travel in Paris at the public libraries in Lambertville, NJ on Feb. 20 and Yardley, PA on Feb. 21; about Jewish travel in Paris at the Lawrence, NJ Public Library on Feb. 19; about travel and travel writing beyond the clichés at Bucks County Community College (Newtown, PA) on Feb. 16, and about cultural heritage and preservation at The College of New Jersey on March 2 .

In addition to his upcoming lectures, Kraut will also be meeting with travel agents, individual travelers and Francophile groups discuss their concerns about and interest in travel to France.

Gary Lee Kraut is the author of five guidebooks and hundreds of articles about France. He is the founding editor of France Revisited www.francerevisited.com, a premier web magazine exploring life in Paris and travel in France. This month France Revisited received the North American Travel Journalists Association’s Silver Award as first runner-up in NATJA’s annual Best Online Travel Magazine competition. Kraut also received a Silver Award in the Best Culinary Travel Article category for a series about the Ardennes region of France. Last year he received NATJA’s Gold Award in the Culinary Travel Article category for an article about France’s Drôme region.

As a travel consultant and private guide, he has worked with a wide array of individuals, including a U.S. senator, a Hollywood actress, a best-selling author, top-flight travel agents, corporate presidents and many curious travelers from across the U.S. and from a half-dozen other countries.

Kraut’s area lecture schedule is as follows. All lectures are open to the public.

Travel and Travel Writing in France Beyond the Clichés
Date: Monday, February 16 at 11am.
Address: Bucks County Community College, 275 Swamp Rd. Newtown, PA 18940. The lecture will take place in the Gallagher room on the second floor of the Rollins Building.
Info: Free. Those not affiliated with the BCCC community are welcome to attend but should first send an e-mail to Theresa.Montagna@bucks.edu or call the Language and Literature Dept. at 215.968.8103 to let them know that they’re coming.

Description: “The clichés of Paris and of France are wonderful,” says Gary Lee Kraut, “but our most rewarding travels are those in which we develop a personal connection with our destination.”

Using insights, experiences and anecdotes from his work in travel and tourism in France over the past 25 years, Kraut will reveal how travel and travel writing are enriched by seeking those connections and by the surprises found along the way. He’ll speak about his own evolution over the years from a tenderfoot journalist working for a suburban New York paper to a top American specialist on travel in France, discuss the magic of “the perfect travel moment,” and provide useful tips on how and where to look.

***

American War Memories in France: Exploring the WWII sites of Normandy and the WWI sites of northern and eastern France
Dates: Wednesday, February 18 at 9:45am in Doylestown, PA (in French) and Wednesday, February 25 at 7pm in Washington, DC (in English
Address 1: Feb. 18: Alliance Française de Doylestown, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 301 North Main Street, Doylestown, PA 18901.
Address 2: Feb. 25: Alliance Française de Washington, DC, 2142 Wyoming Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008. Tel. 202-234-7911.

Description: An illustrated lecture that examines American WWII war sites in Normandy and WWI sites in northern and eastern France and various approaches to visiting them. Along with a survey of a variety of sites and museums and an analysis of the future of the Normandy Landing Zone, Kraut will tell about some of the fascinating people he’s met during his work as a travel writer and travel specialist, from a brandy producer on a historic farm near Omaha Beach to encounters with the children of WWII veterans and with travelers who were unexpectedly and indelibly touched by what they experienced.

In Nov. 2014, at the end of the commemorative year of the 70th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy, Kraut organized and moderated on behalf of France’s Heritage Journalist Association a round-table discussion at Paris’s International Heritage Fair about the future of the Normandy Landing Zone.

***

Jewish Travel in Paris
Date: Thursday, February 19 at 7pm
Address: Lawrence Public Library, 2751 Brunswick Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648. 609-989-6920
Info: Free and open to the public. Registration is suggested by calling 609-989-6928.

Description: “Jewish travelers invariably ask me about anti-Semitism in France but rarely set out to meet French Jews or learn about French Jewish history beyond anti-Semitism when in Paris,” says Gary Lee Kraut. “The effect is a skewed view of Jewish life in Paris. Without denying or apologizing for anti-Semitism, I want to show travelers and armchair travelers that Paris is an extraordinary place to explore Jewish history and contemporary Judaism in Europe.”

In this illustrated lecture Kraut will examine the history of Jews and Judaism in France as seen through various sights and neighborhoods that can be visited in Paris, covering medieval Paris, the emancipation of Jews during the French Revolution, financial and political success in the 19th century, Askhenazic and Sephardic immigration, the Dreyfus Affair, artists of the 1920s, the German Occupation and the Vichy Government, and recent events. He’ll also discuss questions of the identity that Americans and in particular American Jews carry with them when traveling abroad.

***

Culinary Explorations in Paris: A Delicious Bite of Historical and Contemporary Gastronomy in the French Capital
Dates: Friday, February 20 at 7pm at the Lambertville (NJ) Free Public Library and Saturday, February 21 at 2pm at the Yardley-Makefield (PA) Public Library.
Address 1: Feb. 20, Lambertville Free Public Library, 6 Lilly Street, Lambertville, NJ 08530. For further information call the library at 609-397-0275.
Address 2: Feb. 21, Yardley-Makefield Public Library, 1080 Edgewood Road, Yardley, PA 19067. Tel. 215-493-9020.
Both events are free and open to the public.

Description: Gary Lee Kraut treats foodies, gastronomies, bons vivants and simply hungry travelers to a tasteful exploration of food and drink in the great culinary city of Paris. He will examine the history of markets and gastronomy in Paris, describe the development of French cuisine as we know it, explain the interest of experiencing the various types of eating and drinking establishments in Paris, and give tips on how to enjoy culinary travels today in Paris and beyond.

***

Got Heritage? Understanding and Exploring Patrimoine and Preservation in France
Date: Monday, March 2 at 7pm.
Address: The College of New Jersey, in the auditorium of the college library. 2000 Pennington Rd, Ewing Township, NJ 08618. Tel. 609-771-2131
Patrimoine is translated into English as heritage yet patrimoine is used in French in ways that are much deeper and more complex than our use of the word heritage. This lecture explores the notion of patrimoine that is so deeply engrained in the consciousness of the French that it is applied to everything from cathedrals to chateaux to old mills to cuisine to wine culture to craftsmanship to horseback riding and much more. Gary Lee Kraut will explain the scope of patrimoine and reveal through anecdotes and other examples the ways in which he encounters patrimoine through his work as a travel writer and journalist and the wonderful and varied ways in which travelers can come into contact with patrimoine throughout in France. In November 2012 Gary became the first foreign journalist to be elected to the board of France’s Association des journalistes du patrimoine (the Association of Heritage Journalists).

***

Private consulting: During his stay in the area, Kraut will also be meeting with individuals and travel agents to discuss their interests and concerns about travel in France. For more information contact Gary Lee Kraut directly at gary [at] francerevisited.com.

###

Media Contact
Beth Brody, Brody PR
609-397-3737
beth [at] brodypr.com

The post Editor of France Revisited on Lecture Tour in NJ, PA, DC appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.