Towards the Vallée-Foulon, a village that has gone missing...

Erected in 1927 ‘to the valour of French youth’, the monument evokes the memory of the young recruits of 1814 who bore the name of the Empress (Marie-Louise) by associating it with that of the Bleuets of the Great War, young soldiers of class 17. The bronze group, sculpted by Maxime Real del Sarte, depicts a soldier of the Imperial Guard wearing a shako and a poilu from 1914-1918, both holding a laurel wreath as a symbol of glory. This monument therefore commemorates both the battle fought by Napoleon on the Craonne plateau in March 1814 and the fighting of the Great War, a hundred years later, on the same spot... For your information, before the war there was another monument - now totally lost - probably built in 1904 in memory of the battle of Craonne on 7 March 1814.It took the form of a simple obelisk, and was designed by the architect Georges Ermant (also Senator and Mayor of Laon).

When the First World War began, La Vallée-Foulon was a hamlet attached to the commune of Vauclerc, on the other side of the Chemin des Dames plateau.But it soon found itself on the front line, and was constantly shelled. What you see today is the last remaining vestige of the place, the washhouse.In 1923, the hamlet was definitively attached to the nearby commune of Oulches, to form the new entity of Oulches-la-Vallée-Foulon...

In 2007, this monumental group of nine charred wooden figures, each 6 metres high, entitled Constellation of Pain, was inaugurated near the Caverne du Dragon. It is freely accessible every day. It was created by the Rémois sculptor Christian Lapie, and commemorates the sacrifice of thousands of African soldiers - from the countries now known as Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger - all grouped under the single name of Tirailleurs sénégalais, who enlisted under the French flag and fell on these slopes of the Chemin des Dames during the Nivelle offensive in 1917...

This imposing sculpture (almost 4 metres high) has become emblematic of the Chemin des Dames. It was created by the sculptor Haïm Kern (1930-2024) on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, to give a face ‘to these anonymous men who abandoned their future here ’*. It was first inaugurated on the Plateau de Californie in Craonne by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in November 1998, before being vandalised a year later and again in 2006.It was restored but finally stolen in August 2014. The one you see today was recast and moved to the terrace of the Caverne du Dragon... * dixit Haïm Kern in 14/18 Aujourd'hui/ Heute, ed. Noesis, Publication de l'histoire de Peronne, May 1999

The Visitor Centre is a bridge between the past, the present and the future: an XXL digital table, a giant interactive timeline, archive images and personal accounts tell the story of the lives of the thousands of soldiers who were plunged into the most terrible fighting of the First World War. The Caverne du Dragon (Dragon's Cave), a quarry that became an underground barracks during the Great War, offers visitors numerous galleries that bear witness to the soldiers' passage. The chapel, first-aid and command posts and no-man's-land are moving reminders of the lives of these men, both French and German, who lived, fought and sometimes lived together in the darkness of this place. Don't forget: you'll find a specialist bookshop, a shop and a tourist information centre on site, as well as an exhibition area not to be missed and in keeping with the tour, where you can discover the exhibition entitled Hurtebise 1914, in the ruins of the Great War until 31/08/25...