The Forest of Compiègne (french: Forêt de Compiègne, ) is a large

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

Picardy Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hist ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, near the city of

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with ...

and approximately north of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. The forest is notable as the site of the

Armistice of 11 November 1918 The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices ...

between

the Allies Alliance, Allies is a term referring to individuals, groups or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose. Allies may also refer to: * Allies of World War I * Allies of World War II * F ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

which marked the end of fighting in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, as well as the

Armistice of 22 June 1940 The Armistice of 22 June 1940 was signed at 18:36 near Compiègne, France, by officials of Nazi Germany and the Third French Republic. It did not come into effect until after midnight on 25 June. Signatories for Germany included Wilhelm Keitel ...

after the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second Wor ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Geography

The forest of Compiègne is roughly circular with a diameter of about ; it is approximately in circumference and its area is roughly . The forest is lushly irrigated, being adjacent to the rivers

Oise Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,41 ...

and

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.forest of Laigue (''Forêt Domaniale de Laigue''). Around its remaining perimeter, it contains or is adjacent to numerous communes including Vieux-Moulin, Lacroix-Saint-Ouen, Saint-Sauveur, Béthisy-Saint-Pierre, Saint-Jean-aux-Bois, and Pierrefonds. On its south it borders the

Forest of Halatte The Forest of Halatte (Forêt d'Halatte, ) in Picardy is one of the largest remaining blocks of natural old-growth forest in France. Situated in the département of Oise near Senlis and Pont-Sainte-Maxence, it currently embraces 43 square kil ...

. Just outside the city of Compiègne, a grand entrance to the forest begins at the resplendent Château de Compiègne, a former royal residence on the city's western edge. Stretching forward from the château, the ''Avenue de Beaux Monts'' scales the heights of the same name, providing a scenic promenade into the woods.

Characteristics

Chateau de Compiegne, view from the forest-cc

The forest of Compiègne is famous for its picturesque natural attractions, with its arrays of oak and beech trees projecting a "noble and ordered beauty". The most prominent tree species are oak (''

Quercus robur ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widel ...

''), beech (''

Fagus sylvatica ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more ...

'') and hornbeam (''

Carpinus betulus ''Carpinus betulus'', the European or common hornbeam, is a species of tree in the birch family Betulaceae, native to Western Asia and central, eastern, and southern Europe, including southern England. It requires a warm climate for good growth, ...

''). Much of the oak was heavily harvested over the centuries but was replanted aggressively in the nineteenth century when fears of deforestation began to be addressed. Since the late twentieth century, the North American black cherry tree ('' Prunus serotina'') has spread vigorously throughout the forest, eliciting mixed reactions from local arborists. Numerous flowering plants thrive in the woods, notably large numbers of Lily of the Valley (''Convallaria majalis''). Small lakes, ponds, brooks and springs abound throughout the forest, including the Spring of Saint-Sauveur, which is actually a pair of therapeutic mineral water springs running both hot and cold. The forest sustains a great number of game animals including deer, rabbit and wild boar, and the varied terrain – plateaus cut by valleys and gorges, hills, streams and ponds – makes for challenging hunting. For centuries the Compiègne forest has been a prized hunting ground for virtually all the

kings of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the fir ...

. Some 350 roads and pathways cross it adding up to over six hundred miles of trail with stately vintage signposts marking most of the intersections. The oldest ones include a small red mark which shows the direction to the château, relics of an imperial order given during the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930s ...

after the

Empress Eugénie An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

found herself lost in the thick woods. The forest of Compiègne is a popular destination for all types of tourists. Horse-riders and bicyclists particularly enjoy the forest; a long-running bicycle event, the Paris- Roubaix race, has an established path through the forest.

History

Prehistoric and classical eras

The forest of Compiègne area shows evidence of prehistoric habitation, and continuous forest cover has been definitively proven since at least the end of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. Gallic-Roman edifices have been discovered there, and it is traversed on its south and east sides by an ancient

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

now called by the French the '' Chaussée Brunehaut''. During the

Gallic Wars The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homel ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

won a decisive victory in the forest, defeating one of the larger tribes of north-eastern

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

, the Bellovaci. A multitude of the forest's classical-era artifacts are on display at the Château's museum.

Dark Ages

The earliest Frankish kings established the forest as their privileged hunting grounds, and Clothaire the Great built the first royal residence there in the 7th century, and there he died of a fever. The small palace, fitted cozily among the trees, was named Cusia and for some time thereafter the forest itself went by the name ''Forêt de Cuise'' that is memorialized in the village of Cuise-la-Motte that lies to the east of the forest boundaries. A battle between the Merovingian-era kingdoms of

Austrasia Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the ...

and

Neustria Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks. Neustria included the land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, approximately the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. It late ...

took place in the forest in the year 715.

Medieval era

As Empress Eugénie's signposts attest, the thick and heavy forest can be a disorienting and potentially fatal place. In the twelfth century, at the age of fourteen, the future King

Philip II of France Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...

found himself lost in the forest: he came so close to tragedy that his father,

Louis VII Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger, or the Young (french: link=no, le Jeune), was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet "the Young") and married Duchess ...

, felt compelled to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of

St. Thomas of Canterbury Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

to offer thanks for his recovery. In the sixteenth century, King

Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...

commanded the construction of eight hard-surfaced roads through the forest, all of which converge on a single point called the King's Well (''Puits du Roi'').

Early modern era

Napoleon-Hunt-Compiegne-1811 Carle-Vernet

Further avenues connected by an octagonal ring were opened through the woods for the formal hunting parties of

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

, and under the Ancien Régime the number of rides was increased to 200. Napoleon opened the avenue of Beaux-Monts (''illustration''). Prior to the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, the lush woodlands provided lumber for a thriving woodworking community around Compiègne. One of the most popular products supplied by the forest was beech oil, used for cooking and folk medicines: it was bottled in prodigious quantities and sold worldwide from Compiègne through the 19th century, until its marketshare was supplanted by newer, more refined oils.

Second Empire

The forest of Compiègne witnessed much activity during the reign of the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

, for whom the abundant forest was a personal favorite retreat. The Emperor was an avid huntsman, and he reconstituted the forest as grand hunting grounds, even going so far as to revive the age-old office of

Grand Veneur The Grand Veneur de France or Grand Huntsman of France was a position in the King's Household in France during the Ancien Régime. The word French "veneur" ( huntsman), derives from the Middle French word "vener" (to hunt), (itself from the La ...

to oversee it. The Emperor had a deep affection for the forest and frequently organized his hunting parties at the King's Well. In addition to hunting parties and competitions, the forest of Compiègne was the scene of extravagant receptions, parties and even theatrical performances.

Armistices of 1918 and 1940

The forest of Compiègne was the site of the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

between

and

which marked the end of fighting in

on 11 November 1918. The French commander-in-chief Marshal Foch convened the armistice talks deep in the forest beside the tiny village of

Rethondes Rethondes () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is associated with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, which ended World War I, although the actual location of the signing was on the other side of the Aisne ...

, with an eye towards secrecy because he wanted to shield the meeting from intrusive journalists, as well as spare the German delegation any hostile demonstrations by French locals. During

, a second treaty was signed in the forest, this time arranging the

between France and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

(22 June 1940). With an unmistakable desire to humiliate his defeated enemy, German dictator

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

gave orders that the surrender should be received in exactly the same spot, even the same railway car, where the Germans had surrendered in 1918. Image:Armisticetrain.jpg, Ferdinand Foch outside the armistice train. File:Waffenstillstand gr.jpg, The Great War concludes, 11 November 1918. Image:Hitler and german-nazi officers staring at french marechal foch statue 21 June 1940.png, Hitler observing the statue of Marshal Foch, before launching the negotiations, 21 June 1940. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1982-089-18, Waffenstillstand von Compiègne, Unterhändler.jpg, The second Treaty of Compiègne, 22 June 1940.

Armistice Clearing

A memorial site called ''Clairière de l'Armistice'' ("Glade of the Armistice", or "Armistice Clearing") covers the historic treaty area. Additions include a statue of Marshal Foch and the large Alsace-Lorraine Memorial, which depicts an Allied sword pinning down an Imperial German eagle. A famous 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." The original tablet was destroyed by the Nazis, but a new one was emplaced after the war. For bringing the German delegation to the 1918 meeting, the French had assembled the train with a special saloon car which had once belonged to Napoleon III. The car was decorated with old Imperial emblems, redolent of past glories and mutely confirming the resurgence of French power after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The two sides then met in a newer railcar, supplied by

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits Newrest Wagons-Lits, formerly (lit. ''International Sleeping-Car Company''), also CIWL, Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, or just Wagons-Lits, is a division of particularly known for its on-train catering and sleeping car services, as well as being ...

, to sign the armistice. After the

fall of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World ...

in World War Two, this same railway carriage was specifically used by the Germans for the armistice of 1940; it was remanded to Germany where it was eventually destroyed by SS troops in

Crawinkel Crawinkel is a village and a former municipality in the district of Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the town Ohrdruf. Crawinkel was first mentioned in 1088. After the Armistice with France in 1940, during World ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

, in 1945, and the remains were buried. In 1950, a faithful replica of this original railcar was installed at the site. Decades later, some vestiges of the original car were discovered in Germany and returned to France: the pieces were added to the memorial display in 1995. The Armistice Clearing remains open to the public six days a week. Visitors routinely leave photographs and other mementos to be displayed or stored in the museum, making it "an ever-changing place of pilgrimage". Clairiere de l'Armistice 2 Compiegne

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forest of Compiegne Compiègne Compiegne Geography of Oise History of Oise Tourist attractions in Oise World War II sites in France