Royal City

It's been a relaxing few days. The Canal lateral a l'Oise, as we left Pont l'Eveque on Saturday, alternated between green (tree-lined) and rural vistas. There was some commercial traffic, but not a lot, and no other pleasure craft traffic to speak of. Probably due to the commercial traffic that typically uses this waterway, there have been two chambers at each lock--one large enough to accommodate Freycinette-size barges (38 or 39 meters long) and one larger (usually over 100 meters long). We only had one lock to get through on Saturday and didn't have to wait at all. The mooring for the night was a quay in the town of Longueil-Annel. The town has a Barge Museum (which we didn't visit), but not much else; it was a rather quiet place.

Our mooring in Longueil. There was a road next to our mooring that was actually pretty busy during
the day. However, the "residents" on the other side of the canal were very quiet

August is vacation time in France. We've mentioned before how barging
can be a family affair. We've seen more than one instance of kids
being aboard commercial barges. Here a few kids turn their home
into a diving platform

The double locks in Longueil. The large lock is to the left and the
 chamber leading into the small lock is at center

Clever boat names are always appreciated. In this double barge, 
"Why Me" was attached to . . . "Why Not"

Our second day of cruising on Sunday, August 20, was very short--just under two hours. As we only traveled about 7 kilometers further downstream, it would have been even shorter had we not had to wait about 30 minutes at our one lock of the day for a commercial barge to make its passage through the lock. We reached the city of Compiegne and have been moored there ever since. There's a lot to see and do in the city and its environs, and although we're planning to leave tomorrow, we could easily stay longer and not run out of things to do. 

Compiegne has been a royal city for centuries, probably dating back to Charles V in the 1300's. He dealt with various political intrigues from the town, and he constructed a castle that, as a royal and court residence, was visited by many princes. The Hundred Years' War in the 1400's brought vast destruction to the city. During the Siege of Compiegne in 1430 Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English, which ultimately resulted in her being burned at the stake in Rouen in 1431.

The Joan of Arc Tower, the ruined dungeon of a 12th century castle,
 and perhaps where Joan of Arc was held after her capture until
being brought to Rouen

The icing on the royal cake was the decision by Louis XV to build a new castle worth attaching his name to. He loved Compiegne and the hunting that could be done in the surrounding forest. Work continued under Louis XVI. The result was the largest French neo-classical castle which, along with Versailles and Fontainebleau, was--and still is--one of the three most important French royal and imperial residences. During the French Revolution the building was essentially gutted of its furnishings and works of art. But in 1807, with Napoleon I in power, orders were given to restore the chateau to a habitable state--in this case, an imperial residence. It was at this time that the major planning was done, and work begun on the extensive, park-like formal gardens in the rear of the building. Napoleon III, who loved hunting as well, made the chateau his autumn residence.

A tiny portion of the formal gardens and the chateau in the
background

The back of the house . . .

. . . and the front of the house. The chateau currently houses several museums, including the 
historical apartments of Napoleon I, Napoleon III, and their empresses; and the National Car Museum.
It was a bit more than we had time for, so we limited our explorations to the exterior

This view, taken from the back steps of the chateau, shows the Alley of
Beaux-Monts, 4 kilometers long and about 60 meters wide, which connects
the forest to the chateau. Napoleon I started the project to reproduce for his
Austrian empress the perspective of Schonbrunn Palace near Vienna.
It was completed in the 1850's by Napoleon III

We thought it would be interesting to go to the small hill at the opposite end of the alley, so earlier today that's what we did. It was a pretty bike ride through the woods, ending with a short, but steep climb to get to the viewpoint on top of the hill.

Here we are at the top of the hill, with the chateau waaay in the distance

This is what the view toward Compiegne looked like.
Like the long stairway we encountered in the city of Liege,
it seems that it's a "thing" for idiots intrepid young
people to run up the hill

The forest of Compiegne has another claim to fame. Two days previously, not far from where we stood today on Beaux Monts, we visited the Glade of the Armistice. In November 1918, Marshall Foch of France, then supreme commander of the Allied forces in WWI, met with German representatives and signed the armistice in a rail car on the site, effectively marking the end of the First World War on November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m.

The area in the foreground marks the spot where Marshall Foch's rail
car stood; the car in which the armistice documents were signed. In the center
is an inscribed circular monument, and on the other side of that is 
where the German railway cars were parked

The museum had a replica of the original "armistice car"

All well and good, but as Paul Harvey used to say, "and now, for the rest of the story." The forest at Compiegne was, in fact, the site of a second armistice signing. In June 1940, as France was being overrun by the Germans and sought a cessation of hostilities, Adolph Hitler insisted that the armistice must be signed in the same spot in the Compiegne Forest and in the same railway car as the 1918 armistice. The railway car was removed from a museum building on the site and placed exactly where it had been in 1918, but this time, Hitler sat in the chair that Marshal Foch had sat in when he faced the defeated Germans in 1918. The Glade of the Armistice, which had been created as a memorial in 1927, was demolished by the Germans on Hitler's orders three days after the armistice was signed on June 22. The only thing left standing was the statue of Marshall Foch. The railway carriage was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war and was later burned, although there are varying accounts of just when and by whom it was destroyed. After the war, the site and memorials were restored by German POW labor.

A photograph showing the rail car being removed from the museum
by German soldiers in preparation for the armistice signing in 1940

I saw this on our bike ride out to the armistice site. Kitty was
very comfortable. Apparently, I must need a "cat fix" badly

Although Compiegne suffered some damage from bombs during WWII, the damage was not as extensive as in other towns we've been in this year. There were enough older buildings to make it a nice city to walk through.

The 16th century town hall (Hotel de Ville)

Parc de Songeons, with arcades from the former convent of the
Jacobins

Part of what remains of ramparts that protected Compiegne
in the 12th to 17th centuries

A 15th century house

The ultimate in good taste in wine storage--
or maybe not

Not all is ancient in the town. This modern hotel had a rather unusual exterior. Lon and
I had dinner on Monday night at the restaurant on its lovely outdoor terrace
 (denoted by the splashes of colors)

Our final stop of the day today was at Royallieu Camp, which now houses the Memorial to Internment and Deportation. Built during the First World War as a military base, and later used as a hospital, Royallieu was turned into an internment camp from 1941-1944. It was used as a collection point for political prisoners, resistance fighters, and Jews. Some of the prisoners were used as "hostages", with several shot to death as retribution every time a German was killed, but most were held relatively briefly before being deported to concentration camps in the East.

Three of the original barracks buildings still exist, and are used for
museum exhibits

The monument to the tens of thousands of victims

The stop in Compiegne has been productive in ways other than just sightseeing. There's a large boating supply store just across the river from where we're moored, and we were able to obtain some parts that we've been needing for a while. With those parts, Lon was able to complete some maintenance that had been deferred. So, we're now rested and ready to put a few more kilometers behind us. Nineties are in the forecast for the next couple of days, but at least the bridges are higher now that we're on the Oise River, so we can leave the bimini up and stay in the shade while underway.