John Painter explores a strategically-important French boundary town, over which neighbouring powers have competed for over 1,200 years.

Montreuil in Picardy is one of the most interesting small towns in northern France and a good base for visiting the battlefields of Crécy and Agincourt as well as the Somme Western Front. It was Haig's headquarters from 1916 and his statue still takes pride of place in the main square (Place du Général de Gaulle), despite the original, erected in 1931, having been used for target practice and destroyed by the German armies which occupied Montreuil during the Second World War...