An armistice was signed with Germany at Compiègne in northern France on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,” effectively ending the First World War — 102 years ago today.

Another armistice was signed on June 22, 1940 between Nazi Germany and the defeated French Third Republic in both the same place and in the same railroad carriage as in 1918, but with the seats swapped. Obviously that was both purposeful and symbolic.