Every year my boyfriend Sam and I gift each other a weekend away as a birthday gift. This year my birthday in September was during our Cruise to the Norwegian Fjords, thus my boyfriend decided to plan my ‘birthday present trip‘ in the month of December 2024. While first looking at Germany and some of its Christmas markets, often hotels where really busy and in the end we stumbled upon a nice getaway in Chantilly, France.

On our way to Chantilly we would be passing by Compiègne, the site of the World War I Armistice. As we where travelling by car I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to stop at this historic site.

Hidden away in a clearing in the woods (to keep away prying eyes in 1918), Google Maps first lead us the wrong way, forcing us to backtrack and follow the ordinary signage along the road.

After parking the car in the rustic parking we walked across a short forest path towards the historic clearing. Here there where marks by stone in the ground alongside the railway tracks to depict where each train stood at the time of the Armistice. The memorial is in a typical grand French style, as you would expect a French memorial to be. At the far end of the ‘French’ tracks was a small museum building.

In front of the building there were some tanks and weapons used during the first world war.

After paying the €8 entry fee, you could walk inside the small museum building. The first room contained a similar wooden Wagon-Lits dining car from the same type as the original Armistice coach. Unfortunately the real coach burned down in the second world war when it was seized by the Germans after using it as the place to sing the French surrender in World War II.

The room behind the coach contains a small movie theatre, playing a movie about the events. The other rooms featured plaques and displays about the lead up to WW I, the war itself, the Armistice, the aftermath, WW II and what happened to the coach and museum during and after that time.

It’s a small but historic place to visit if you are in the area, allow for about an hour. I wouldn’t recommend to travel there just to see it, as it is not that elaborate.