Thereis a small hall in the Queen’s pavilion, at the Château de Vincennes, which houses the historic service of the national navy. His chief of staff, Admiral Pierre Vandier, gathered there, during a back-to-school seminar earlier this month, a dozen admirals who were among his closest collaborators. A short introductory conference was organized to discuss one of these battles that make up the history of France: that of Chesapeake Bay, Virginia (United States), on September 5, 1781.
During the war of independence against the British, King Louis XVI had sent a large expeditionary force support the rebels American ; on 30 August a French squadron commanded by Admiral François de Grasse had landed thousands of soldiers in the bay of C …
