Instant climbs #5 | Climb from La Valise > Avenue Georges-Clémenceau

Opened in December 2020, this play area has become a must for the many (little) knights of Laon! With its castle and wooden hut, zip-line, turnstile and sunbathing areas, it attracts families looking for fun all year round, sheltered by the ramparts on the south side of the upper town. A must-see!

Don't panic, dear tourists, this isn't a place where you'll lose your luggage! Its name simply comes from a distortion of the word ‘val’ or ‘valley’, and thus characterises this fairly long (400 metres) and rather steep climbing street...

The architect Charles Abella (1879-1961) was commissioned after the First World War to design a monument for Laon: originally, it was to take the form of a Victory and be built in the upper town, on the Saint-Vincent plateau. The project then evolved, and the Mont de Vaux, halfway between the upper and lower towns, was chosen as the site for this monumental sculpture (around 16 metres high), both Minerva and Victory, facing the upper town. The monument took almost two years to erect, and was officially unveiled in early summer 1926. It should be noted that it is flanked on its right by a stele in tribute to the concentration camp martyrs of the Second World War (1957), and on its left by a plaque in tribute to the French Marshals of the Second World War (2000s).

This marble statue was created in 1871 by the sculptor Barthélémy Frison (1816-1877). The life-size statue depicts Delilah, the biblical character who betrayed Samson by robbing him of the source of his strength... It should be noted that it was also the State that donated this work to the town of Laon, which installed it here in 1875.

A little curiosity along the route... and a dead-end path, because you'll have to turn back! But do take it, because it's truly bucolic! It was supposed to connect the current Promenade Yitzhak-Rabin to Square Rhin-Danube, down Avenue Gambetta, but now ends in the middle of the forest...Its name suggests that it was located below an open area bordering the old citadel, built not far from there on the heights on the eastern side of the plateau.

The citadel was built between 1595 and 1598 on the orders of Henri IV following his 1594 siege of the League town. To do this, two entire districts - between 2 and 300 houses, two churches and Laon's covered market - were completely razed to the ground! Note the gateway and its two bastions: they face the town, as if to keep it at bay... The gate, decorated with the king's coat of arms and bearing a dedication ("Built by Henry the Great in 1595, was restored and perfected by Louis Philippe I in 1835"), was fitted with a Poncelet drawbridge in 1847. It is said that his plans were criticized by Vauban himself, who even declared that his engineer should have been hung from the gallows!