3 reasons to visit the Armistice Memorial

It is November 11, 1918, 5:15 am. The day has hardly dawned on the Clairière de Rethondes, where a dead calm reigns. In a train car, the leaders of countries engaged in the First World War are preparing to put an end to four years of fighting. This particular atmosphere is retranscribed at the memorial, where you can visit a replica of the most famous train car in history. Original furnitures, inkwells, desk lamps, phones - all the period details immerse the visitor in the heart of this historic moment.

The Glade of Rethondes is also the setting for France's capitulation in 1940. After the signing, the glade was destroyed by order of Hitler. The memorials of the Great War and the car of the armistice are transported to Germany, where it was destroyed by fire. The world had to wait for the end of the Second World War for the monuments to return to the glade where they belonged. The new memorial tour, divided into ten sequences from 1914 to the after 1944, lead visitors from one war to another, allowing them to see the link between these two armistices.

After visiting the reconstitution of the wagon, go to the Clairière de l'Armistice to enjoy the calm and solemnity of this historic site. Various monuments line this site, among which include the Alliance of Peace, a 3.5 m (11.5 ft) high and 50 cm (20 inches) wide ring on which the word "Peace" is inscribed in about fifty languages. A Garden of Memory has also been created to commemorate more recent conflicts, bearing the name of the last soldier died during the great war, Augustin Trébuchon.