The best cycling routes around Servon-Melzicourt

This ossuary, which has the status of a national necropolis, houses the remains of approximately 10,000 soldiers who fell during the Battle of Argonne. The imposing monument found there was created by the sculptor Raoul Eugène Lamourdedieu.

The Saint-Roch chapel appeared in the 17th century, well before the La Harazée national necropolis next to which it is located. The latter contains the remains of 1,672 soldiers who fell during the Battle of Argonne.

The Nécropole Nationale de la Forestière in Lachalade is a military cemetery that keeps alive the memory of the soldiers who died in the First World War. This serene memorial was created in 1915 and later expanded to collect the remains of soldiers who fought in the Argonne region between 1914 and 1918. Today, 2,005 soldiers rest there, and the cemetery is famous for its blue, pink and white hydrangeas, planted by the Comtesse de Martimprey in tribute to her missing husband. The site has been classified as a World Heritage Site since September 2023, and nearby is a monument to the Italian volunteers who fought in the Argonne, including the grandsons of Giuseppe Garibaldi

Musée d'Argonne – Varennes-en-Argonne A surprisingly versatile museum in the heart of the Argonne! Discover the place where King Louis XVI was arrested, delve into the daily life of the region with crafts, and come face to face with tangible traces of WWI — including a gun swallowed by a tree. An atmospheric, compact stop full of history near the impressive Pennsylvania Monument. 🏛️🌳🇫🇷

This bell tower, also called the "Tour Louis XVI", marks a key historical moment: it was here that King Louis XVI was arrested on 21 June 1791 during his failed attempt to escape from revolutionary France. Built in 1793 on the site of the choir of the old Saint-Gengoult church, the tower has been listed as a historical monument since 1989. A silent witness to a turning point in French history.

This little road is wonderfully quiet, a much better option than the D946 which runs parallel to it.

At this location, deep in the Argonne Forest, a unit of the American 77th Division was surrounded by German troops on October 2, 1918. For five days, the so-called Lost Battalion held out under difficult conditions, cut off from supplies and communications. Only a third of the soldiers survived.

The Lost Battalion Memorial is located in the Charlevaux Ravine near Binarville, on the D66, and commemorates the heroic struggle of some 554 American soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division who were surrounded by German troops during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in October 1918. Led by Major Charles Whittlesey, these men held out for six days, cut off from supplies and communications, with only carrier pigeons as a means of contact. The most famous of these, Cher Ami, saved the battalion by delivering a crucial message despite being wounded, which stopped friendly fire.