[Illustration: B. CO. OF 303RD ENGINEERS (78TH INF. DIV.) BUILDING BRIDGE OVER THE AIRE, DESTROYED THREE TIMES BY ENEMY ARTILLERY FIRE. _At back_: GRANDPRÉ.] Grandpré Grandpré lies at the eastern end of the pass formed by the Valley of the Aire, which cuts deeply into the Argonne. The town is very old. To the south, on the Nègremont Mountain, there are traces of a camp which is supposed to be Roman. Attila, after his defeat in the _Champs Catalauniques_, also camped there, and long after him, Dumouriez. The village was possibly founded or extended by a follower of Clovis, who built a château there, but of which nothing now remains. Grandpré was pillaged in 884, by the Normans; during the Hundred Years’ War, by the English; and, under the League, by the rival troops of the Marshal of St. Paul, Mayenne, and Henri IV. The latter stayed there in 1591. His letter of October 3, 1591, in which he relates the events of the preceding days, was dated from Grandpré. During the _Fronde_ the country was again ravaged, and at a later date, pillaged by the Dutchman Growenstein. In 1792, Dumouriez had his headquarters at Grandpré, and after the battles of Croix-aux-Bois and Montcheutin, the headquarters of the King of Prussia were transferred there. In October of the same year, during the Prussian defeat, Grandpré was crowded with enemy sick, struck down by dysentery. [Illustration: GRANDPRÉ. TEMPORARY BRIDGE ACROSS THE AIRE] According to Goethe, the castle was at that time the abode of pestilence and death; the neighbourhood of the village, thickly strewn with corpses and graves, was one gigantic cemetery. During the war of 1914-1918 the German camps and military works at Grandpré were frequently bombed by the Allied airmen. Only at the end of September, 1918, did the Franco-American troops recapture the village after a long and severe struggle. On a terrace, in grounds to the north of the village, stands a château in the style of Louis XIII., which is but the main entrance of an old and larger castle belonging to the Dukes of Joyeuse. This castle, in which Charles VI. lodged when on his way to the Ardennes, was rebuilt by _Louis de Joyeuse_, assisted by the generosity of Louis XI. Joubert, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy, was married to Mlle. de Montholon Senonville in this castle on the 7th Messidor of the year VII. (June 26, 1799). The castle was destroyed by fire in 1834. [Illustration: GRANDPRÉ. RUINS OF CHURCH] _The road passes slightly to the right of the Church_--a large, handsome building of yellow stone (_hist. mon.--photo above_), which suffered greatly from the bombardments. Dating from the 13th century, when it formed part of the old Priory of St. Médard, it had frequently been restored and altered. The pulpit and the choir-stalls were composed of fragments of magnificent 16th century woodwork, brought from the Abbey of Belval. The church contains the tomb of Claude de Joyeuse, a remarkable monument in black marble.