Le musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt, unique musée consacré à des relations entre deux pays, et plus spécifiquement à la France et aux Etats-Unis d’Amérique, est situé à 120 km au nord de Paris et à 15 km de la gare de Noyon.

Construit en 1612 sur les plans du célèbre architecte Salomon de Brosse, le Château de Blérancourt fut la demeure de la riche famille des Potiers de Gesvres, avant démantelement pendant la Révolution. En ruines à la fin du19ème siècle, il est confié en 1917 par l’Armée française à Anne Morgan, fille du fameux banquier et collectionneur américain John-Pierpont Morgan. A la tête d’une association d’aide aux populations des régions sinistrées par la guerre, le Comité pour les Régions Dévastées, elle poursuit jusqu’en 1924 son action humanitaire et participe à la reconstruction de la région Picardie grâce aux missions suivantes : service d’infirmières-visiteuses, ravitaillement, aide à la lecture publique, foyers et jardins d’enfants, scoutisme, sports et fêtes. Grâce à,un parc automobile de Ford-T, les volontaires peuvent ainsi desservir 130 villages à partir de 5 centres établis à Blérancourt, Coucy-le-château, Anizy, Vic-sur-Aisne et Soissons. Au plus près des populations sinistrées, elles participent activement à une reconstruction morale et sociale et apportent la joie de vivre dans une région détruite à 90 % lors du conflit mondial.

Au lendemain de la guerre, Anne Morgan rachète le château (1919), fait restaurer en 1924 les deux pavillons d'angle pour y installer le musée de la coopération franco-américaine, puis en 1930 l'aile nord du Château, suivie par l'aile sud en 1938.

A l’origine dédié à la participation française à la guerre d’Indépendance et surtout à l’aide américaine durant la Première Guerre mondiale, le projet culturel du musée s’est ensuite étendu aux relations artistiques franco-américaines, présentées dans le pavillon Gould construit en 1989 par les architectes Yves Lion et Alan Lewitt.

Le musée fait actuellement l’objet d’un chantier de complète rénovation afin d’augmenter la surface d’exposition et de valoriser les vestiges archéologiques majeurs (maison-forte médiévale) découverts pendant les fouilles réalisées avant travaux.

Réouverture du musée franco-américain de Blérancourt après complète rénovation, automne 2017.

Visites et ateliers pédagogiques :

https://museefrancoamericain.fr/activites-pedagogiques

• Centre de documentation et contact(s)

Bibliothèque franco-américaine : La bibliothèque franco-américaine est consacrée aux relations entre la France et les États-Unis. Située dans le cadre exceptionnel d'un pavillon du XVIIe siècle, elle comprend plus de 6 000 ouvrages.

• Ouverte aux lecteurs sur simple demande écrite.
• Service pédagogique et contact(s)

Catherine Assous Tél : 03 23 39 14 72 mail : catherine.assous@culture.gouv.fr

• Visite gratuite : Uniquement lors des événements nationaux

https://www.coordonnees-gps.fr/communes/blerancourt/2093

Sources : ©Musée franco-américain du Château de Blérancourt

This cemetery is located beside the N44 towards Berry-au-Bac at La Musette. Of the 564 bodies in the cemetery (563 British and 1 from New Zealand, and additionally a British pilot and a French soldier from the Second World War), 413 have not been identified. The cemetery was constructed after the Armistice by bringing together the graves, isolated or in small cemeteries, of soldiers killed in 1918.

The village of La Ville-au-Bois was captured in April 1917 by French troops during the bloody Chemin des Dames offensive. The sector was held by the British 50th Division on 27 May 1918 when the Germans launched their third spring offensive, which brought them to Château-Thierry. During the battle, the 2nd Devons and the 5th battery of the 45th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery were wiped out and received the Military Cross for their sacrifices.

A Roman town from the first century A.D., Laon was a strategic location in the bids to control the north-eastern area of France. A stop-off point on the way to Paris, the town was well acquainted with troop movements during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the First and Second World Wars. The stele in honour of the four generals was inaugurated on the same square as the monument to the dead on 18 June 2006 by Evelyne Ratte, Prefect of Aisne. It faces the monument to the dead killed during both world wars, in international theatres of war and in North Africa.

A commemoration of the Liberation of the town from German troops, it is composed of a panel into which the Cross of Lorraine has been carved surrounded by biographic plaques of the four French generals, key members of the resistance who contributed to the liberation of a nation and its entry into the contemporary era:  Alphonse Juin (1888-1967), Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (1887-1952), Marie-Pierre Koenig (1898-1970) and Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (1902-1947).

The Plateau de Californie, near l'Ailette in the Chemin des Dames region, is an important place of remembrance for the Great War, associated with the failed offensive of Nivelle in April 1917 and with the later mutinies. The site takes its name from an American saloon called "The California" created by Henry Vasnier before 1914. There was also a hotel there, a zoo and an exotic garden with American Indian plants, next to vines, agricultural land, market gardens and woodland. The 18th Infantry Regiment (I.R.) is closely linked to the fate of the place. In reserve at the time of the assault of the 16th April 1917, they became involved from the 4th May, when Craonne and the plateau de Californie were captured. During this fighting they were to lose 40% of their men. Traumatised, these men, then resting in Villers-sur-Fère, refused to return to the front on 27th May 1917, thus starting the first mutinies. Twelve soldiers were brought before the war council on the 7th June; five were sentenced to death for "armed revolt", of whom one was pardoned, another escaped and three were shot on the 12th June at Maizy. Craonne Hill is now classified as a red zone, in the same way as are another 18,000 hectares of land that was totally destroyed by the intensity of fighting, most of which has since been entrusted to the national Forestry Office. Pine trees have been planted there.

Forgotten until the 1990's, this spot has since been developed and has a panoramic viewpoint, orientation table, car park, signage and sign-posted pathways to the heart of what remains of the trenches and shell craters. Sculpture-the monument erected in memory of the soldiers of the 18th I.R. on an old German concrete bunker. This creation was a publicly funded commission by the department of culture and communication, in partnership with the General Council of the Aisne. It is by the sculptor Haim Kerner. Constructed in 1998 in memory of soldiers from all wars, this monument in horizon-blue coloured bronze is made up of heads, all identical, imprisoned behind barbed wire, symbolising the shackles of history with the inscription "They did not choose their burial place". It was inaugurated on the 5th November 1998 by the Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, on the 80th anniversary of the victory of 1918.
Plaque to the 18th I.R. This plaque dedicated to the 18th I.R. is situated on the far eastern edge of the plateau de Californie.. It was built in 1927 on top of an old German concrete bunker and bears the dedication: "To the glory of the 18th Regiment (Béarn - Basque Country - Gascony), an elite regiment whose duty was to capture the plateau of Craonne, a position that had been judged impregnable, and who scaled it with magnificent spirit. Mentioned in despatches - 4th -5th May 1917".

Born in Rotterdam on 21 July 1877 to a prominent old Dutch family, Joost van Vollenhoven spent most of his childhood in Algeria, where his parents had moved and worked as merchants.

After earning a law degree and being naturalised French on 4 February 1899, he was admitted to the Colonial School that year. He completed the eight first years of his career in major political, administrative and diplomatic missions, first at the Ministry of Colonies, then in French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, then once again in Paris. He received the Legion of Honour in a civilian capacity in 1912 and, at the age of 35, was named Governor of the Colonies and Secretary General of the Indochinese Federation before taking on the functions of interim Governor General when war was declared in 1914.

He was sent to the front in April 1915, at his own request, with the rank of Colonial Infantry Sergeant assigned to the Colonial Infantry Regiment of Morocco. He was named second lieutenant on 21 May.

Injured and with several commendations, he finally accepted the position of Governor General in Dakar in May 1917, a position from which he resigned eight months later in disagreement with the recruitment policy for African soldiers. Back on the front, he was once again commended in April 1918 and promoted Captain of the R.I.C.M. On 19 July 1918 he received a head injury near the village of Parcy-Tigny during an offensive by General Mangin’s 10th Army, engaged in the forest of Villers-Cotterêts since the 18th.

Joost van Vollenhoven died in the morning of 20 July. He was buried in the forest of Villers-Cotterêts, nearly the village of Longpont.

His commendation in the Army Order of 28 July 1918 is inscribed on Van Vollenhoven’s mausoleum: “An officer of ancient valour and virtue, the incarnation of the most admirable and solid military qualities, mortally wounded just as he was electrifying his troops by his example, taking a stubbornly defended enemy position. Ranking on the level of Bayard and La Tour d'Auvergne, and to be commended as an example for future generations, having been one of the most brilliant among the brave.”
 

Between the Aisne and the Ailette, not far from the N2 (the main road from Soisson to Laon), a field of memorials and steles echoes the poems of Louis Aragon "Traveller, remember the moulin de Laffaux".

The taking of the position of the moulin de Laffaux was to be a stage in the mass offensive planned by General Nivelle, commander in chief of the French armies of the north and north west, in the Chemin des Dames sector. This offensive was responsible for 140,000 deaths in a few days. General Maistre's 6th army launched an assault on the plateau de Laffaux, to the south east of Vauxaillon on the 5th May at 4.45 am. The 1st Colonial Army Corps was charged with taking the Vauxaillon-Fruty sector. "Marsouins" of the 3rd I.D., cavaliers on foot of the 4th, 9th and 11th cuirassiers and foot soldiers of the 28th and 329th I.R., supported by the tanks of Lefebvre's task force, took the Cacatoès trench and advanced on the plateau de Moisy, taking the trenches of le Rossignol, Pertuisane and la Rade, as well as the Mennejean farm. The 9th and 11th cuirassiers both advanced from the moulin de Laffaux. Grenade offensives facilitated the taking of the trenches of le Môle, le Mousse and le Rouge-gorge, whilst Captain Robinet's tanks reached the vicinity of the quarry at Fruty and, on doubling back, overcame the last pockets of resistance in the moulin de Laffaux sector. Fighting started again on the 6th May at 4 pm. Supported by a barrage of artillery fire, the French army was engaged in the north eastern sector of Vauxaillon. The colonials were held in check at the Mont des Singes but the 4th cuirassiers took the position of the château de la Motte and the 9th cleaned up the Ravin d'Allemant. The German counter offensive was contained. After two days of fierce fighting, the position of the plateau de Laffaux was taken. 12 pieces of equipment were lost and 55 men put out of action, including 3 dead. Commemorative monuments pay tribute to the courage and tenacity of these soldiers who "Died for France".
Monument to the "crapouillots" (trench artillerymen) An imposing memorial in the shape of a mortar shell, this monument pays tribute to the 12,000 entrenched artillerymen who died between 1914 and 1918 on the French and Eastern fronts. "Crapouillot" is the name given to the French trench mortar because of the projectile's curved shape that resembles a leaping toad or "crapaud". Monument to the marine fusiliers Erected in 1938, this construction is dedicated to the battalion of marine fusiliers who fought at the moulin de Laffaux on the 14th September 1918, at a cost of heavy losses: 18 officers and 430 company men killed. A few metres behind this monument is the entrance to the Fruty quarry which still bears the scars of the fighting of the 14th September 1918. Monument to the stenographers Monument dedicated to the memory of French and allied stenographers who died for their country. Monument to the 4th cuirassiers This monument was erected to bear witness to the valour of the 4th, 9th and 11th Cuirassiers. Monument to General Estienne This stele, a tribute to General Estienne, the "father of French tanks", is a reminder that during the fighting of the 5th and 6th May 1917 at the moulin de Laffaux, the first heavy tanks, Schneider and Saint Chamond, were used - 32 Schneider and 16 Saint-Chamond tanks.
Monument to the 9th regiment of foot cuirassiers This monument is in memory of Captain René de Chasteignier, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre (War Cross); of Lieutenant Michel Wagner, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre; of Sub-Lieutenant Jean-Luc de Carbuccia, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre; of the officers, sub-officers and cavaliers of the 9th Regiment of Foot Cuirassiers who died for France during the victorious assault of the moulin de Laffaux, on the 5th May 1917. Georges Damez Memorial "On the 19th August 1917, after an aerial battle 400 metres from here, the aeroplane of Pilot sergeant Georges Damez of squadron SM 106, who was awarded the Croix de guerre and with two citations to his name, was shot down in flames. A reverent tribute to his memory ". Maurice Thiriez Memorial "Here, on the 7th May 1917, fell gloriously Marshal des logis Maurice Thiriez of the 9th Cuirassiers, a great Christian and a great Frenchman ". Frédéric Taillefert Memorial "Frédéric Félix Taillefert, 21st Company of the 4th mixed Regiment of zouaves and fusiliers. An elite machine gunner, who proved during the offensive of the 23rd October 1917 (battle of la Malmaison) his heroic bravery and even rarer courage in leading the waves of assault and facilitating their advance using fuelled and fine-tuned fire. Fallen gloriously near the village of Chavignon. Marshal of France at army Headquarters on the 9th April 1919, commander in chief of the French armies in the east, Pétain". Henri Dupouy Memorial "In memory of Henri Dupouy, a teacher from Dax, who fell here on the 7th May 1917 at the age of 25".

The fort in Condé-sur-Aisne was part of the Séré-de-Rivières system built to defend the new 250km border from Longwy to Belfort resulting from the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt, which ended the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. The five-sided fort was a second line component of the La Fère-Soissons fortification.

The Condé fort was built at the same time as the one at La Malmaison and by the same companies (Dollot and Fortier). The land survey dates from 1876; the first battery was completed in July 1877; the final plans were approved in May 1878 by the minister and in July by the engineering corps. The project's total cost was set at 1,850,000 francs. Most of the work was completed by late 1883. In 1885 two companies of the 67th infantry regiment (500 men) were garrisoned there. The 13-hectare fort was able to accommodate 650 men including 20 officers. An infirmary could house 80 patients. The stable was planned for 12 horses; powder magazines, a munitions depot, a forge and two wells occupied the rest of the area suitable for construction. An eight-metre-wide moat surrounded the fort, which had 18 artillery platforms. In 1888 the weaponry included four long 155mm cannons, four short 155mm cannons, nineteen 120mm cannons, four 15cm mortars, several revolver cannons and 12 breech cannons. Like the La Malmaison fort, the Condé fort became useless as weaponry grew more advanced and was decommissioned in 1912. On 1 September 1914 the Germans took the fort without a fight. The French and English attacked it several times a short time later. The position fell on 15 September before being retaken by a violent Imperial counter-attack. Fierce fighting raged in late September; the Germans did not give in. They built a beacon that swept the Aisne Valley and artillery batteries.
When the Chemin des Dames offensive began on 16 April 1917, Von Kluck's troops evacuated the position. In October 1917 Generals Pershing and Franchet d'Esperey came to observe the battlefield from the fort. On 27 May 1918 the Germans' counter-offensive broke through the Allied lines. They shelled the Condé-sur-Aisne fort and stormed it on 28 May. In August French troops retook their position in the Aisne sector. The Germans left on 7 August, taking their artillery pieces with them. The fort, which had become useless and lay partly in ruins, was disarmed after the war and abandoned in 1927. In the 1950s the fort housed a shell-clearing centre. In 1959 the town of Chivres Val bought the site from the town of Condé-sur-Aisne in order to use it as a stone quarry for the people living in Chivres-Val and its environs. In 1979 the Potiers set up an association to preserve and restore the Condé fort as well as endangered churches and monuments in southern Picardy. Renovation work on the fort started. On 1 July 2003 the Community of Aisne Valley Towns, which realised the site's economic potential, started offering events and guided tours of the fort.
Condé Fort 02280 Chivres-Val Tel.: 03 23 54 40 00 Fax: 03 23 54 40 04 E-mail: fortdeconde@wanadoo.fr Opening times and guided tours April-May: every day from 9:30am to noon and 1:30 to 5:30pm / Guided tours at 2 and 4pm and on Sundays at 2, 3 and 4pm June-July-August: every day from 9:30am to 6:30pm and Sundays until 7:30pm / Guided tours at 2, 3, 4 and 5pm and on Sundays at 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6pm September-October-November: every day from 9:30am to noon and 1:30 to 5:30pm / Guided tours at 2 and 4pm and on Sundays at 2, 3 and 4pm Admission Individual: adults €5; 10-18 years old €3; children under 10 free Groups (30 people minimum): adults €4; 10-18 years old €2.5; children under 10 free