Sunday, November 2, 2008

Shit holes that made it to History

As you may have already seen, I'm obsessed with shit holes. Useless abandoned places whose existence is a living testimony of humanity's forgotten origins. But there are even more interesting things than shit holes, and that's shit holes that managed to make History.
Thanks to a lucky combination of circumstances, these places bear a name in people's busy minds even if they don't know what the hell they look like.

Compiègne is one of them. This shit hole was twice elected centre of the universe. The first time in 1918 when French field-marshal Foch invited german officers for breakfast in his newly furbished command wagon and took their surrender. The second time in June 1940, when Hitler returned the favor and invited himself in the same wagon to ask Petain where he should go first when visiting Paris.

Bretton Woods is a ski spot of New Hampshire surrounded by the Rosebrook mountains. It welcomes holydaymakers during the winter seasons and offers both downhill and cross-country skiing facilities. Stephen King and his wife never miss a chance to linger there when going for fresh air and legal squarrel shooting.
Bretton Woods was the site of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in 1944, at the end of which the Allies decided they would feed the western world with petrol and dollars.

Camp David is the rustic 125-acre mountain retreat of the CEO of humanity, the President of the United States. It is part of the Catoctin Mountain Park recreational area in Frederick County, Maryland. The Camp David Accords of 1978 made the spot famous by officially putting an end to the war between Egypt and Israel.
It was agreed back then that the arabic countries who still wanted to blow Israel off the map had to pass through underage palestinian suicide-bombers. Up to now, the agreement has been honoured without fail.

The list here is endless: Maastricht, Kyoto, Monte Cassino, Bethleem, Auschwitz, London, South Park, Springfield would all have been worth a description.

Other places you have in mind? Feel free to post your description.

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