Compiègne

Compiègne, a bustling town of some 40,000 people—frequent trains connect with Paris's Gare du Nord (the trips takes 45 minutes and costs EUR 29 round-trip)—is at the northern limit of the Forêt de Compiègne. Set on the edge of the misty plains of Picardy, this is prime hunting country, so you can be sure there's a former royal hunting lodge in the vicinity. The one here enjoyed its heyday in the mid-19th century under upstart emperor Napoléon III. But the town's history stretches further back—to Joan of Arc, who was captured in battle and held prisoner here, and to its 15th-century Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall), with its jubilant Flamboyant Gothic facade; and further forward—to the World War I armistice, signed in Compiègne Forest on November 11, 1918.