Alsace-Lorraine Memorial, which depicts an Allied sword pinning down an Imperial German eagle. A famous memorial tablet placed at the precise location of the cease-fire signing reads (in French), "Here on the eleventh of November 1918 succumbed the criminal pride of the German Reich... vanquished by the free peoples which it tried to enslave." The original tablet was destroyed by the Nazis, but a new one was emplaced after the war. For bringing the German delegation to the 1918 meeting, the French had assembled the train with a special saloon car which had once belonged to Napoleon III. The car was decorated with old Imperial emblems, redolent of past glories and mutely confirming the resurgence of French power after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The two sides then met in a newer railcar, supplied by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, to sign the armistice. After the fall of France in World War Two, this same railway carriage was specifically used by the Germans for the armistice of 1940; it was remanded to Germany where it was eventually destroyed by SS troops in Crawinkel, Thuringia, in 1945, and the remains were buried. In 1950, a faithful replica of this original railcar was installed at the site. Decades later, some vestiges of the original car were discovered in Germany and returned to France: the pieces were added to the memorial display in 1995. The Armistice Clearing remains open to the public six days a week. Visitors routinely leave photographs and other mementos to be displayed or stored in the museum, making it "an ever-changing place of pilgrimage". References Compiègne Compiegne Geography of Oise History of Oise Tourist attractions in Oise World War II sites in France