Hameau de Chaumont

On one of the roads to Compostela, Chaumont, which takes its name from "Calvus Mons" (the bald mountain), is located near the former priory of St. Quentin. The church of Saint Pierre de Chaumont, which dates from the 12th century, survived the assault of the German panzers in May 1940. From the period known as the "phoney war" (3 September 1939 - 10 May 1940), only a few engraved door lintels remain in Chaumont: "Au plat du jour, chez Maxim's, Caverne des Grognards, Aux gueules cassées"! The "phoney war" in English, "phoney war"; in German Sitzkrieg, "seated war"; is the period between the declaration of war by France and the United Kingdom (the Allies) on Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939 and the latter's invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Allied armies waited for the offensive in the villages, deceiving boredom. The French General Staff is convinced that the forest of the Ardennes is impassable even for Hitler's panzers. The defensive work at the borders is behind schedule and contrary to the warnings of the parliamentary delegation that came to inspect the fortification work and the armament of the troops in the Sedan sector, General Huntziger was unaware of this degree of unpreparedness. The blockhouses have no gates and are not all equipped with weapons. These soldiers are all the more psychologically demobilized because they live among the civilian population as in peacetime.