Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais

Montreuil
Montreuil
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Montreuil
	<templatestyles src="Template:Hidden begin/styles.css"/> Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region Montreuil
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Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Montreuil
Canton	Montreuil
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes du Montreuillois
Government
• Mayor	Bruno Béthouart
Area1	2.85 km2 (1.10 sq mi)
Population (2006)2	2,498
• Density	880/km2 (2,300/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	62588 / 62170
Elevation	2–43 m (6.6–141.1 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Montreuil or Montreuil-sur-Mer (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃tʁœj syʁ mɛʁ]) is a sub-prefecture in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is located on the Canche river, not far from Étaples. The sea, however, is now some distance away.

Sights

It is surrounded by medieval ramparts, part of the reinforcement work of the famed French military engineer Vauban from his fortification of northern France in the 17th century.

Demographics

Population (1999): 2,688 inhabitants for the city, 21,603 inhabitants for the canton and 99,288 inhabitants for the arrondissement.

History

Portrait of Haig at General Headquarters, France, by Sir William Orpen, May 1917

Montreuil was the headquarters of the British Army in France during the First World War from March 1916 until it closed in April 1919. The military academy providing excellent facilities for GHQ. General Haig was quartered in the nearby Château de Beaurepaire, two miles (3.2 kilometres) SE of the town on the D138. There is a plaque on the château wall to commemorate the event.

King George V, accompanied by Haig, made a triumphant passage through Montreuil on his way to Paris on 27 November 1918.^[1]

A statue of Haig on horseback, commemorating his stay, can be seen outside the theatre on the Place Charles de Gaulle.^[2] During the German occupation of the town during the Second World War, the statue was taken down. It was never found and is thought to have been melted down. It was rebuilt in the 1950s, using the sculptor's original mould.

Literature

Lawrence Sterne visited the town in 1765. He recounted his visit through the eyes of the narrator of his novel A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768).

Montreuil is the setting for part of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, where it is identified only as M____-sur-M__ in past translations. The protagonist, Jean Valjean (going by the name Father Madeleine), is for a few years the mayor of Montreuil, as well as owner of the local factory, and it is where the character Fantine lives, works, and later becomes a prostitute before dying in a local hospital. Hugo had spent several vacations in Montreuil.^[3]