In an attempt to cut Verdun off as early as 1914, the Germans captured the town of St-Mihiel on the River Meuse to the south of it, which gave them control of the main supply route into Verdun. The only route left open to the French – and that far from safe – was the N35, winding north from Bar-le-Duc over the open hills and wheat fields. In memory of all those who kept the supplies going, the road is called La Voie Sacrée (The Sacred Way) and marked with milestones capped with the helmet of the poilu (the slang term for the French infantryman). In St-Mihiel itself, the Eglise St-Michel contains the Sépulcre or Entombment of Christ, by local sculptor Ligier Richier – a set of thirteen stone figures, carved in the mid-16th century and regarded as one of the masterpieces of the French Renaissance. Just beyond the town to the east, on the Butte de Montsec, is a memorial to the Americans who died here in 1918 and a US cemetery at Thiancourt on the main road.
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