Compiègne is a commune in the Oise département of France, of which it is a sous-préfecture. The city is located along the Oise River. Population (1999): 41,254.

Contents

1 History 2 Memorials at the site of the 1918 Armistice 3 Twin towns 4 External links

History

665 - Saint Wilfrid consecrated Bishop of York.

February 888 - Odo, Count of Paris and king of the Franks was crowned in Compiègne.

May 23, 1430 - During the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians while attempting to free Compiègne.

1630 - Marie de' Medici's attempts to displace Richelieu ultimately led to her exile to Compiègne, from where she escaped to Brussels in 1631.

November 11, 1918 - The fighting of WWI ended with an armistice agreed at Compiègne.

June 22, 1940 - Armistice between Nazi Germany and the defeated France in Compiègne. It was signed in the same place as in 1918, in the same railroad carriage but with the seats swapped.

1968 - The starting location of the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race was changed from Paris to Compiègne.

2004 - The Communauté de Communes de la Région de Compiègne becomes a partner in a European Union INTERREG IIIb project called SAND (see link below)

Memorials at the site of the 1918 Armistice

• Alsace-Lorraine Memorial: a depiction of a sword (representing the allies) stabbing a fallen eagle (representing Germany).
• Marshal Foch's statue
• Memorial tablet placed at the precise location of the cease-fire signing: reads (in french) HERE ON THE ELEVENTH OF NOVEMBER 1918 SUCCUMBED THE CRIMINAL PRIDE OF THE GERMAN REICH. VANQUISHED BY THE FREE PEOPLES WHICH IT TRIED TO ENSLAVE. (This tablet was dismantled and taken to Germany in 1940. It was returned after World War 2).
• Copy of the original train carriage where the cease-fire was signed (the original was destroyed in Germany at the end of World War 2).

Twin towns

• Landshut, Germany, since 1962
• Huy, Belgium, since 1959
• Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, since 1989
• Kiryat Tivon , Israel, since 1988
• Arona, Italy, since 1962
• Vianden , Luxembourg, depuis 1964
• Shirakawa, Fukushima, Japan, since 1988
• Elblag, Poland, since 2002
• Bury St Edmunds, England, since 1967

External links

• City council website http://www.mairie-compiegne.fr/ (in French)
• SAND Project site http://www.sandproject.nl/
• INTERREG http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/interreg3/