Every design for Compiègne

Compiègne sits just downstream of the spot where the Aisne flows into the Oise, north-east of Paris, and a vast state forest begins at its south-eastern edge. It is a town where old provinces meet, Picardie, Champagne and Île-de-France, and the rivers and the trees shape it as much as its streets do.

Mention Compiègne to someone who grew up here and the forest usually comes up first: long walks under the trees, and the clearing at Le Francport where the armistice that ended the fighting of the First World War was agreed in 1918. In 1940 the scene was replayed in the very same railway carriage, with the seats swapped. Back in town the memories are gentler: the half-timbered houses of the rue des Lombards, the Église Saint-Jacques, students from the university of technology crossing the centre, and the old cars of the Musée de la Voiture de Compiègne.

Then there is the Château de Compiègne, rebuilt under Louis XV and a residence of both Napoleon I and Napoleon III. It is the picture of Compiègne people carry with them when they leave, and the reason so many like to keep the town's map close.