The story of this place
In a railway carriage parked in a forest clearing near Compiègne, the Armistice ending the First World War was signed at 5:10 a.m. on 11 November 1918, taking effect at 11 a.m.—the eleventh hour of the eleventh day. Marshal Foch dictated terms to a defeated Germany in that very wagon. In June 1940, after France's collapse, Hitler exacted a bitter revenge: he had the same carriage hauled from a museum to the same spot and forced France to sign its surrender there on 22 June, then had the site demolished and the wagon taken to Berlin, where it was later destroyed. A replica now stands in the rebuilt clearing.