Commended in the Army in 1922, Villiers-Saint-Georges was one of the most advanced positions that the enemy reached in September 1914 and had its own military hospital during the war. The bodies of soldiers that were not claimed by their families lie in the military cemetery where the town’s War Memorial stands.

 

Following the fighting of September 1914, as often happened, civilians were required to bury the dead. Bodies were collected and divided across two ossuaries, while individual graves were kept for soldiers who died in the Villiers-Saint-Georges military hospital in 1918. Collective graves were used up until 1915, but individual graves became more commonplace. Furthermore, the law of 29 December 1915 granted soldiers who died for France the right to be buried in individual graves. Therefore, the Montceaux-lès-Provins Cemetery is typical of military cemeteries from the beginning of WWI and representative of the way French military authorities managed the deceased.

 

Today the Great Tomb contains the bodies of 127 French soldiers, 32 of them unknown, in a single grave.

In 1932 the Souvenir Français association erected the monument made from stone, marble and mosaic preserving the memory of the 95 identified soldiers from the 231st, 246th and 276th infantry regiments.

They include author and poet Charles Péguy, who was killed on 5 September 1914.

Just 400 metres from the Great Tomb, a granite monument shows the place where Lieutenant Péguy went into attack and was killed 150 metres further on, in the field opposite the stele.

 

The Battle of the Ourcq, 5-9 September 1914

On 25 August 1914, General Joffre ordered a retreat in order to place 500 000 men in a line of resistance spanning nearly 200 miles, from Verdun to the English Channel. His objective was to cut off the Germans’ access to Paris and push them northwards. For that purpose he created the 6th Army, to defend a line from Meaux to Senlis, as there was news of enemy patrols just eight miles from Paris. In conjunction with the British, the French troops made an about-turn. The Ourcq valley then became the scene of bitter fighting, its few hills constituting crucial strategic positions.

On 25 August 1914, General Joffre ordered a retreat in order to place 500 000 men in a line of resistance spanning nearly 200 miles, from Verdun to the English Channel. His objective was to cut off the Germans’ access to Paris and push them northwards. For that purpose he created the 6th Army, to defend a line from Meaux to Senlis, as there was news of enemy patrols just eight miles from Paris. In conjunction with the British, the French troops made an about-turn. The Ourcq valley then became the scene of bitter fighting, its few hills constituting crucial strategic positions.

On 8 September, the French took a battering from the German Army. A fleet of Parisian taxis requisitioned by the French command (the “Taxis of the Marne”) enabled the front line to be maintained, in extremis, by transferring five battalions (5 to 6 000 men) there. On the 9th, the Germans, contained in Champagne, gave way on the Ourcq and, fearing being cut off from their rearguard, retreated over the Aisne, to previously fortified positions. Chambry was one of the enemy’s most advanced positions in September 1914.

From 5 to 12 September, the Battle of the Marne, and more specifically the Battle of the Ourcq, turned around what was a severely compromised military situation and halted Germany’s planned invasion of France. Paris was saved, at a cost of terrible losses: 250 000 young Frenchmen died in August and September 1914. Exhausted, the British and French armies could not find the strength to drive back the invader across its borders.

In a final thrust, each of the belligerents made a frantic dash for the sea, in order to take their enemy from behind. But it failed, and both sides were stranded on the North Sea coast. So began a conflict in the trenches that was to last four years, until the Allied victory in November 1918.

 

At the entrance to the cemetery, local builders aided by the local council of Etrépilly erected a monument, which was unveiled on 12 September 1915 at the spot where the most intense fighting had taken place. It bears a quotation from Victor Hugo, "Glory to our eternal France, Glory to those who died for her", and commemorates soldiers from the units engaged in these battles, particularly those from the 2nd Zouave infantry regiment.

 

The Musée de la Grande Guerre was officially opened on 11 November 2011 by the Pays de Meaux combined area council. The furthest point of the German advance and the site of the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, Meaux and its neighbouring communes possess historic heritage which, until then, had been undervalued and was little known to the general public, since the Great War is not generally associated with the Île-de-France region. First off, then, the museum serves as a reminder that the front came right up to the edge of Paris, and that the “miracle of the Marne”, just one month after the outbreak of hostilities, was the victory that was to decide the course of the conflict. Besides its historical legitimacy, the museum, like any major structure, plays the role of a lever of development for the region. It contributes to shaping a new image while mobilising different actors around a shared project that can benefit everyone, both in terms of culture and tourism and in terms of networks.

Origins

The Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux has its origins in a meeting between Jean-Pierre Verney, a passionate, self-taught historian who, over more than 45 years, collected 50 000 objects and documents on the First World War – one of the largest private collections in Europe – and Jean-François Copé, chairman of the Pays de Meaux combined area council. Copé took the decision to buy the collection in 2005 and founded a museum on the First World War, at a time when Verney was preparing to sell overseas, having found no local authority willing to take it. It was an obvious choice, given the sheer scale of the Pays de Meaux area (18 communes with a total population of 85 000) and the fact that a number of its villages still bear visible traces of the Battle of the Marne (memorials, cemeteries, etc.), including the grave of French poet Charles Péguy, killed on 5 September 1914.

A museum on a human scale

From the outset, the Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux was intended to be for all visitors. Its bold design and contemporary layout, at once educational, sensitive and immersive, contribute to making it as accessible as possible.  This proximity to visitors can be explained in part by the desire to approach the conflict from a human perspective, through the everyday lives not only of the soldiers, but of women and children, continually switching between the front and the home front. All the nations that took part in the war are represented here, namely through the collection of uniforms, the overall intention being to present the universality of suffering and violence, whatever side of no man’s land your camp happens to be on

The object at the heart of the display

The exhibition is deliberately open and unconstrained, in order to allow each visitor to choose their own route, and thus build their own history. The main display, which presents the First Battle of the Marne (1914) alongside the Second Battle of the Marne (1918), clearly presents to visitors the passage from the 19th to the 20th century. Between these two key mobile battles at the beginning and end of the war, the presentation of the static war with its front comprised of trenches offers an insight into the notion of stalemate. Laid out in the main body of the museum, here is where the big hardware (lorries, aircraft, tanks, artillery pieces, etc.) is on show, making the museum a unique place where visitors can see the full range of objects and documents bearing witness to the conflict. This main display is complemented by a themed display: eight spaces look at topics that cut across the conflict (A New War, Bodies and Suffering, Globalisation, A Mobilised Society, etc.), adding new ways into the subject. The presentation is different for each of the spaces, thereby breaking up the monotony of the experience, as each new setting renews visitors’ interest. Obviously, the objects in the collection are at the heart of the display: they lend and take on meaning in their relationship with the space and in the dialogue they establish with the museum resources, and ultimately move visitors to ask questions about their own memories. By arousing interest and curiosity, the museum encourages visitors to interrogate their own personal history.

An innovative interaction

If visitors are greeted by ambient sounds even before they set foot in the museum, once inside, they find a whole series of objects to touch in the displays. Known as “martyr objects”, they belong to the collections and offer the public an opportunity to handle materials and shapes. There is also a wealth of interactive tools that aim to put the visitor in the driving seat: wearing special glasses to experience 3D stereoscopic views, feeling the weight of soldiers’ kit bags or coils of barbed wire, guessing what objects are in the archaeological niches, educational games to grasp the economic impact of the war or discover the different belligerent nations, interactive terminals to offer a deeper insight into the collection. All of this makes for an attractive and dynamic visitor experience, involving the different senses, thereby aiding the immersion in what is a complex subject.

The Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux is today an essential site for discovering the history of the First World War, and the area has become a remembrance tourism destination. The years of the centenary commemorations contributed to that process, which is sure to continue as the museum celebrates its tenth anniversary with a special season in 2021-22.

 

Sources : © Musée de la Grande Guerre

This arena was built in 1807 in the Carrousel Quarter, a Fontainebleau Chateau outbuilding, under Napoleon I. Its extraordinary wooden framework is one of the features that have earned it historical-monument status. Quartier du Carrousel was a Fontainebleau Chateau outhouse that was handed over to the armed forces in 1871. The history Emperor Napoleon I had had this arena and its remarkable single-vault wooden frame built in 1807. It was listed (along with the area around it) as an historical monument in 1913 and 1930, and named after General Sénarmont. The stables surrounding the Cour du Carrousel or Cour Carrée were also built around about that time. The latter is much older because again, the National Archives, the trace of its construction by Louis XVI in 1784 and 1785. It was used for the Petite Ecurie du Roi. 1815 to 1870 These buildings housed military staff serving under French kings and Emperor Napoleon III until 1870. 1871 to 1940 The Quartier du Carrousel was then handed over to the Ecole d'Artillerie (Artillery School) where young officers such as Ferdinand Foch, who went on to become a Marshal of France and of the United Kingdom, trained in the art of horse riding. That was when the arena was built and named Manège Drouot, after the Emperor's aide-de-camp and Imperial Guard General Major. World War II to the present day The buildings were abandoned for a short spell during World War II, but were then refurbished to house the École Nationale d'Equitation (National Horse Riding School) that a group of former members of the disbanded Cadre Noir (an elite cavalry corps) founded. The prestigious Military Equestrian Instructor corps was established there in 1945. The Cadre Noir corps joined the École d'Application de l'Arme Blindée et de la Cavalerie (Armour and Cavalry School) in Saumur in 1946. The military equestrian games were established then too. The centre was in Quartier du Carrousel. This centre briefly came under the École Interarmées des Sports (Army Sports School) in Fontainebleau but became independent again and was renamed Centre Sportif d'Equitation Militaire on 1 April 1973. As an army cavalry corps, it came under the Commandement des Ecoles de l'Armée de Terre (Army School Command) on 1 September 1976. That authority became the Commandement des Organismes de Formation de l'Armée de Terre (Army Training Unit Command) in 1993. The disbanded 8th Régiment de Dragons flag - and that regiment's traditions - were entrusted to its care in 1977 -and its traditions. Today, the buildings house the Centre Sportif d'Equitation Militaire (Military Equestrian Sports Centre) which oversees military equestrian sports across France. The French ministries of Culture and Defence have signed an agreement to develop and promote this centre.

Architecture This historical monument's highlight is no doubt its amazing single-vault Philibert-Delorme wooden frame (named thus after the architect who designed the first such frame in 1551). The arena is 66 metres long and 20 metres wide. The chestnut-tree frame sits on a cornice holding the string pieces and hoop bases. A second string piece sits on the walls and holds the cornice brackets and the top chords. The top chords and hoops converge on a umber of pegs (as it were) at the top. These components are all similar. They each comprise two 25-mm thick and 30-cm wide fir boards, overlap, and wrought-iron nails hold them in place. The 0.05 x 0.15 stanchions converge on the cornice hoops, two iron bands clamp them to the wall, and ridge ribs hold them in place. Splines on either side secure them to the ridge ribs. They are assembled in an alternating pattern: the same peg fastens each set of face-to-face ridge ribs. A few figures will provide a clearer impression of this building's daunting size: each truss (there are about one hundred) holds 104 ridge ribs and 312 mortises. Meaning there are about 31,000 mortises on the 100 trusses.
This building has been entrusted to the Ministry of Defence. France's Defence and Culture ministries signed an agreement to restore it, on 17 September 2005. Click here to see the list of other buildings...
Fontainebleau Chateau 77300 Fontainebleau Tél. : 01 60 71 50 70 Fax : 01 60 71 50 71 Mail : resa.chateau-de-fontainebleau@culture.fr