The California Plateau in the heart of the Chemin des Dames is, like Verdun, an emblematic place of the First World War. However, it has long been associated with the bitter failure of the Nivelle offensive of April 1917, with the mutinies that followed and with the break-up of the summer of 1918, and was doomed after the First World War to a process of occultation.
Before 1914, this plateau, located above the old village of Craonne, was already a place for walking.
After the war, pine trees were planted on this red zone, as the land was no longer suitable for cultivation. And since 2013, a tower-observatory freely accessible will allow you to embrace the plain at more than 25 meters height…
Plateau de Californie
