Alexandre Villedieu Museum, Loos-en-Gohelle

There is no doubt, Loos-en-Gohelle is a land marked by history. While this Pas-de-Calais commune has managed to rise from its ashes, the First World War did not leave it without scars. The scene of three attacks between 1915 and 1917, the French, the British and the Canadians fought in turn to defend Loos and liberate this land from the Germans. Bombing, gas, famine…The consequences of the war are felt on the battlefield and the landscapes of the Hauts-de-France are shaped in this way, over the course of history.

Years later, the traces left by the soldiers during the war remain engraved on the French soil. The history of the poilus awakens in us a real desire for memory: this is the project undertaken by the association “Loos, in the footsteps of the Great War” that can be discovered at the Museum Alexandre Villedieu of Loos-en-Gohelle.

Founded in 1992, the Alexandre Villedieu Interpretation Center and Museum takes its name from a French soldier who died on the battlefield of Loos-en-Gohelle. His pen was the first object found on the site of the war and the beginning of a beautiful collection. For Gilles Payen’s association, “Loos, sur les traces de la Grande Guerre”, this piece is a symbol: that of a life that must not be passed over in silence, just like that of thousands of other men. Each relic has its history, its feeling, its usefulness:

“To make these objects speak to tell the story of the Great War through them.”

Sensitizing new generations to the History of France, this is the mission that Gilles Payen, who is also the manager of the Alexandre Villedieu Museum, has given himself. The man bears a personal attachment to this collection: among the Allied or enemy uniforms and medals dating from the First World War, a paper cutter belongs to his great-grandfather, a French soldier who fought in Loos-en-Gohelle.