We next reach the level of the Hôtel du Grand Cerf, of which the signboard is seen on the view below. The German headquarters staff stayed there, and that is no doubt the reason for its remaining intact. The Mayor of Senlis, M. Odent, was taken there on September 2, after his arrest at the town-hall, just before being taken to Chamant to be shot. The proprietor of the hotel having left the town, the German officers commandeered a restaurant keeper and made him prepare a meal for thirty people, with "ices and champagne."
FIRE RUE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE (1914)
RUINS OF THE NOTARY'S HOUSE (1914)
The houses which face the hotel and which were still burning when the above photograph was taken, are those of the local justice of the peace and public notary.
Looking through the entrance gates of the latter residence, one beholds the scene of desolation reproduced in the opposite picture.
BURNT COURT OF JUSTICE