Varennes-en-Argonne
Varennes-en-Argonne is a small town in northeastern France, in the Meuse department of the Grand Est region. It sits on the Aire River, near Verdun and Sainte-Menehould. As of 2023, about 636 people live there.
The town is best known for the Flight to Varennes in June 1791, when King Louis XVI and his family tried to flee Paris to reach the Austrian Netherlands. They were intercepted in Varennes by Jean-Baptiste Drouet, the local postmaster who had been alerted after the escape party was spotted in nearby Sainte-Menehould. The royal family was brought back to Paris, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed a few years later.
Varennes-en-Argonne was almost completely destroyed during World War I and was rebuilt afterward. The town also houses the Pennsylvania Memorial, a monument to volunteers from Pennsylvania’s 28th Division who fought in the war.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 04:09 (CET).