The train carriage is straight from the golden age of rail travel. Commissioned in 1913, wagon 2419D of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits had a dining car with mahogany walls. By November 11 1918, it was the French marshal Ferdinand Foch’s mobile office, parked in the forests outside Compiègne, in northern France. Eight French, German and British men spent that night in strange intimacy around its small wooden table, smoking and studying France’s punitive peace terms. Foch had refused to negotiate: the Germans could sign the proposed Armistice or leave. At 5.12am the German Catholic politician Matthias Erzberger signed, then said, “A nation of 70 million suffers but does not die.” Foch still wouldn’t shake hands.
這節車廂真的來自鐵路旅行的黃金時代。編號爲2419D的車廂的運營方爲國際臥鋪車公司(Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits)，於1913年委託製造，有一節紅木牆的餐車。到了1918年11月，這節車廂已成了法國元帥費迪南•福煦(Ferdinand Foch)的移動辦公室，停在法國北部貢比涅(Compiègne)市外的森林。11月10日那天晚上，在一種詭異的親密環境中，8個法國人、德國人和英國人圍坐在一張木桌旁，抽著煙，研究法國提出的苛刻和平條款。福煦拒絕談判：德國人要麼在擬定的《停戰協議》上簽字，要麼離開。11月11日清晨5時22分，德國天主教政治人士馬蒂亞斯•埃茨貝格爾(Matthias Erzberger)簽署了協議，然後說：「一個7000萬人的民族遭受苦難，但沒有滅亡。」福煦仍然拒絕握手。