The Third Train

In the forest of Compiègne, the Armistice Glade is one of the landmark sites of the First World War: on 11 November 1918, the armistice was signed in a railway carriage that became world-famous. Designed by landscape architect Marc Blume, artist Gilles Brusset and architect Francesca Liggieri, the Garden of the Third Train, a Franco-German project, lays out the path leading from the car park to the glade, making the walk that precedes the discovery of the site a memorable one. Within the undergrowth, the three designers drew a symbolic and formal parallel between the lines of the Great War trenches and the shapes traced in the forest floor by the filaments of the mycelial network. Like them, the garden paths wind beneath the canopy, delimiting planted pockets in which the woodland is staged. To this network of paths, a genuine invitation to explore the undergrowth, is added a long low bench that invites contemplation instead: set with several dozen mirrors, its horizontal line crosses the shaded site reflecting the sky and the foliage, like a third train – the train of peace.

Status

Built

Location

Compiègne (60200)

Commissioned by

art & jardins | Hauts-de-France

Commission

Peace garden for the Armistice Glade (FRANCE) – Waldlichtung des Waffenstillstandes (FRANKREICH)

Designers

Francesca Liggieri architect + Gilles Brusset artist + Marc Blume landscape architect

Date

2018

Photography

© Pierre-Yves Brunaud