SNCF from Gare du Nord. S.I. place de l’Hôtel de Ville, www.compiegne-tourisme.com. The Romans called it Compendium, which seems apposite for a town that has seen its fair share of history. The Burgundians captured Joan of Arc here in 1430 before handing her over to the English, and from the 14thC a succession of French kings and emperors spent time in Com-piègne’s royal palace.

On the edge of the Forêt de Compiègne, the town is not much to look at, largely rebuilt after the Second World War. One survivor, the fine Renaissance Hôtel de Ville built by Louis XII, has an animated clock in the bell tower. The Musée Vivenal (closed Tues) has an exceptional collection of Greek vases; while the Musée de la Figurine Historique (www.musee-figurine.fr) displayes 85,000 tin soldiers from ancient Gauls to Général de Gaulle.

Château de Compiègne dates from the 17thC when Louis XV decided to rebuild the royal residence with the help of Ange-Jacques Gabriel, architect of place de la Concorde in Paris. Conducted tours trail through the sumptuous royal apartments including Marie-Antoinette’s lavishly appointed suite and Napoleon’s scarlet and gold chambers. Here also the Musée du Second Empire displays an enormous range of grandiose paintings, furniture and objets d’art; more intriguing is the Musée de la Voiture et du Tourisme with its carriages, cars and bicycles.

On November 11 1918, the Armistice which marked the surrender of the German Empire and ended the First World War was signed in a railway carriage in a woodland siding, the Clair-ière de l’Armistice, just east of Compiègne (6 km via the N31/D546). In June 1940, Hitler had insisted that the French surrender was signed in the same spot and the carriage was shunted off to Berlin as a trophy. It was later destroyed by bombing, but an exact replica sits in its place with a small museum.