The story of this place
Charles de Gaulle bought the manor of La Boisserie in this quiet Champagne village in 1934, and it became his sanctuary and spiritual home. Here he wrote his war memoirs in a corner tower study, walked the grounds while shaping the destiny of France, and returned after resigning the presidency in 1969. On 9 November 1970 he died at La Boisserie of a ruptured aneurysm while playing solitaire, aged 79. By his own wish he was buried not among the great in Paris but in the modest village cemetery, beside his beloved daughter Anne. A towering pink-granite Cross of Lorraine, 44 metres high, rises on the hill above, and a memorial museum tells the story of the man who twice saved France.