Compiègne, like Crépy-en-Valois, Dammartin, Villers-Cotterets, and other of the towns and villages of the district, which in the fourteenth century belonged to the younger branch of the royal house, enter largely into the romances of Dumas, as was but natural, seeing that this region was the land of his birth.
The most elaborate and purely descriptive parts are found in “The Wolf Leader,” wherein are presented so many pictures of the forest life of the region, and in “The Taking of the Bastille,” in that part which describes the journey of Ange Pitou to Paris.
Crépy, Compiègne, Senlis, Pierrefonds, are still more celebrated in Dumas’ writings for glorious and splendid achievements—as they are with respect to the actual fact of history, and the imposing architectural monuments which still remain to illustrate the conditions under which life endured in mediæval times.
At Crépy, now a sleepy old-world village, is still seen the establishment of the Valois of which Dumas wrote; and another grande maison of the Valois was at Villers-Cotterets—a still more somnolent reminder of the past. At Compiègne, only, with its magnificent Hôtel de Ville, does one find the activities of a modern-day life and energy.
Here in strange juxtaposition with a remarkably interesting and picturesque church, and the dainty Renaissance Hôtel de Ville, with its jacquemart, its belfry, its pointed gable, and its ornate façade, is found a blend of past and present, which combines to produce one of those transformations or stage-settings which throughout France are so often met with and admired.
No more charming petite ville exists in all France than Compiègne, one of the most favoured of all the country residences of the Kings of France.
The château seen to-day was an erection of Louis XV.
Le Forêt de Compiègne is as beautiful and unspoiled as any, and is, moreover, not overrun with tourists and trippers, as is Fontainebleau.
CHÂTEAU OF THE DUCS DE VALOIS, CRÉPY