Varennes-en-Argonne

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For other uses of the term Varennes, see Varennes (disambiguation).

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Varennes-en-Argonne or simply Varennes is a city and commune in the French département of Meuse. Population (1999): 691.

It lies on the river Aire to the northeast of Sainte-Menehould, near Verdun.

Historians know the town as the scene of the flight to Varennes of 1791.

In June 1791 Louis XVI, with his immediate family, made a dash for the nearest friendly border, that of Austrian Belgium (Queen Marie-Antoinette being a sister to the Austrian emperor, Leopold II). But in Varennes Louis and his family were arrested, by Citizen Druet, the local postmaster, who had been alerted by a message received from nearby Sainte-Menehould. It is said that at Sainte-Menehould , where the escaping party had spent the previous night, a merchant alerted the town authorities of their presence after recognizing the King's face on a coin, as Louis tried to buy something from a shop. Once more France's king, queen, and dauphin (crown prince) returned to the Tuileries in humiliating captivity, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were subsequently executed on the guillotine. The dauphin probably died in prison a couple of years later, in 1795.