Travel Guide Corbeny

Corbeny is a village of less than 800 inhabitants, destroyed during the First World War and rebuilt in 1929. It is the eastern starting point for the Chemin des Dames (D18 CD).Suggested route on the Chemin des DamesFrom Corbeny, you have two choices of route on the Chemin des Dames: if you follow the D18 CD exclusively, you will find, in order, the Vieux Craonne and California plateau, the Marie-Louise monument and Hurtebise farm, and the Caverne du Dragon. As you leave the forest and shortly before arriving at Hurtebise farm, a statue of Napoleon will inevitably catch your eye on your left in the middle of the fields. It commemorates the victory of the French armies at Craonne against the Russian and Prussian armies on March 7, 1814. If, from Vieux Craonne, you decide to enter Craonne on the CD18, you'll continue on to the Craonnelle National Necropolis, the village of Craonnelle, and then, as you climb back up to the Chemin des Dames plateau, to the Basques monument. D18 CD and D18 meet at Hurtebise farm. From this intersection, you can reach the superb ruins of Vauclair Abbey, a few kilometers to the north-west (D886). Once you've reached Cerny-en-Laonnois, with its memorial chapel and national necropolis, the route we suggest leaves the Chemin des Dames and turns north on the D967.