A small market town, and the birthplace of Camille Desmoulins, the man who started the French Revolution by climbing onto a table outside a café in the Palais-Royal gardens and urging the crowd to attack the Bastille.
| Guise |
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| La Ville A small market town, and the birthplace of Camille Desmoulins, the man who started the French Revolution by climbing onto a table outside a café in the Palais-Royal gardens and urging the crowd to attack the Bastille. |
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Le Château-fort
Originally the fortress seat of the Ducs de Guise, perennially
important in the Wars of Religion as leaders of the Catholic party,
but not necessarily always supporters of the King. It was originally a medieval
castle, but was strengthened and modified in the
17th-18th centuries according to the latest models of military architecture.
Considerably dilapidated, it was given to the town
in 1966 by the then owners in memory of their son, killed by the Germans as a
resistance fighter soon after D-day.
Frequent Medieval Festivals add colour to the drab interior.
le Familistère Godin
Jean-Baptiste Godin was a local industrialist who built a
Model Town to house and entertain his workers, along the lines of
Bournville, Saltaire and Port Sunlight – only, this being France rather than
England, the workers were housed in apartment blocks.
