Day 20: Soissons to Compiegne

September 15, 2023

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In our BnB situation last night there were lots of books all around, revealing the wide ranging interests of our hostess, Sandrine. She had lots of travel books, and also some popular authors, like Ellis Peters. There was one of letters from the WWI front, which I found very scary. But the one which Dodie threw my way to keep me quiet was our favourite format, the child's guide. This was a child's guide to French history, in 100 easy dates. Fun!

We try to avoid overnight situations where we have to talk, but when they do come up we always enjoy them, and probably talk too much! At "Au Coeur de Soissons", Sandrine and her daughter Sophie were lots of fun.

There were two other guests for the night, Claudia and Arnd, from Speyer. You can imagine our answer to "Do you know of Speyer?"! We were also fascinated to learn that both play in a swing band, Claudia on keyboard and Arnd on saxaphone. Of course we collected their contact information, so they have to watch out next time we blow through Speyer, maybe for the next SPEZI special bike show.

The tourist pamphlet for Soissons lists twelve must see sites, and Dodie was ready to circulate around to each of them. In fact, we almost achieved that, but of the twelve only perhaps four were both open and worth recording here.

Here is the memorial to the war of 1870. It made it into the blog for the angel on top.

Quite a strange one is the ruin of the Saint Jean des Vignes abbey. The tall, empty towers are really the symbol of Soissons, though the abbey, started in the 11th century fell into disuse in the 14th.

Another view of one of the abbey towers.

Through the town the architecture was often attractive. How about this silver building, which is silver just because.

The cathedral is normally a focal point, and this one was as well. It was suitably extremely long and with many gothic arches. But its main feature right now was extensive ongoing reconstruction.

A service was ongoing, for a small congregation, in a side chapel.

There is extensive restoration going on both inside and out. I think this is due to much support from the EU and French governments, but have no idea what the arrangements with the Church might be. secular support is appropriate, I think, because these buildings now form part of the general and not just religious culture.

The Picardy region, which occupies a position in France north of Paris, is known as the birthplace of gothic architecture. It has seven major cathedrals within a 60 km radius. Of these, we will visit three. Clearly we need another trip.

Jeanne d'Arc was seemingly everywhere in France, and she is so popular. Here in Soissons is a Jeanne d'Arc was here plaque. It says she spent three days, which is more than we can say! On the other hand, if anyone wants to put up a "Grampies Slept Here" plaque, go for it!

Near the bank of the Aisne river, as we prepared to set off west, we spotted a bakery and of course dove in. We got a curry chicken sandwich on baguette, some chausson pommes, and a fig and other dried fruit bread. Later, down the river at lunch time, we sampled the items. Like music by Mozart or somesuch, down the halls of time and across space you can appreciate the genius. Not to overstate it, but a baker in that shop was a genius. Can a chausson pommes be a work of art? You bet!

Now it was time to embark on the 50 or so km run from Soissons to Compiegne. It's kind of a straight run along the river, except that one is seldom right by the river, and there are in fact quite a few twists and turns. But the run could be written up as some special cycling fun, because one passes through a whole series of really cute villages, where the houses are commonly made of stone. In between are farm fields - it's just a lovely ride.

In Berny Riviere. It's kind of an upscale spot.

Vic Sur Aisne has lots of stone buildings, and a chateau with a "Donjon"

Some implements of castle war, left behind in the now dry moat.

This castle stuff was most active in the 12th century.

We encountered a huge field where by some quirk of the harvesting, scads of yellow beans remained on the ground. Even in this untended state, they still had the lovely appearance of the very skinny typical French string beans. It's shocking to see how much food can come from these large fields, and how much can be left behind.

We faithfully followed our track, though in fact we can no longer remember which algorithm came up with it. But here it went to hell, as the track deteriorated to grass. We backtracked and found a good road.

In Europe you can not help but to ride through history, and here in northern France the memories of the two world wars seem fresh. We are learning lots. For example we did not know that Compiegne, our destination for tonight, was the site of the signing of the Armistice ending WWI, and also the surrender of France, in 1940. Upon seeing some reference to it, we pulled out the phone, and learned that it all went down in a railway car somewhere. We would soon learn so much more!

Our first indication that we had arrived "somewhere" was this unique and disturbing statue of a slain (German) eagle. We were near to where Marshall Fochs dictated the terms of stopping hostilities to the Germans in 1918.

A few kms outside Compiegne is the actual site were Fochs met the German negotiators. They drove through the lines by car and arrived to where Fochs had his rail car. It was not really a negotiation, and the Germans in the end had to almost totally disarm, turn over there ships, planes, and gear, and beat it back home. They accepted this because they (and the French as well) were totally exhausted by the years of war. They were being pushed back, but had not collapsed. On the other hand fresh American troups were arriving, and it looked like Germany would then be invaded. This time, unlike in 1945, they came to the reasonable decision to sue for peace.

The parking site of the original rail car.

This is an original FT-17 tank, though the paint job does not look authentic.

German and French 75 mm and 77 mm artillery. One had a hydraulic recoil system that permitted much faster firing.

There is even more to this site. In 1940 Hitler chose it for the signing of the Armistice under which France surrendered to Germany. This was definitely a revenge move, and after the ceremony he had the hated site destroyed. We assume that this included the rail car, although there is one inside the museum. Another puzzle is about that dead eagle monument. It is labelled 1918, but surely Hitler would not have left it standing. So who put the current example there, and when?

The museum website notes that the eagle monument was inaugurated in 1922. This is also the time for the railcar parking spot stone. But the stone says “Here, on 11 November, the criminal pride of the German empire was vanquished by the free peoples it had sought to enslave.” Did that survive 1940? If there are any history buffs out there, let us know.

p.s. Ok, extensive information about the rail car, anyway, can be found here. It also seems that the eagle monument and railcar stone are reproductions, from 1950. The railcar stone original was brought back to Germany, as was the rail car, which was eventually destroyed. The rail car in the museum is one of the same series, from the original company.

Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,025 km (637 miles)

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Mark BinghamInteresting stuff!!
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