Bernard Phelan grew up in Dublin and now lives in the Pyrénées-Orientales. This is his behind-the-scenes story of an innocent man, arrested and imprisoned in Iran and finally released after 222 days.
Only fragments survive to witness the passage of more than 60,000 people interned in the Camp of Rivesaltes between 1942 and 1966.
The war is nearing it’s end. The Germans occupying France are on edge and expecting the Allied Invasion at any time.
The Comet line, so named because of the speed needed to whisk stranded airmen down through occupied France to safety, helped hundreds of allied soldiers and airmen to escape from occupied France.
During the Second World War, resistance movements in the Pyrenees-Orientales helped hundreds of refugees, allied soldiers and airmen to escape from occupied France across the border into Spain.
Marie-Thérèse Figueur (1774 – 1861), nicknamed Mademoiselle Sans-Gêne (without shame), was one of the few French female soldiers to enlist in the French Revolutionary Army and fight in the Napoleonic Wars.
Young Australian Bruce Dowling arrived in France in 1938 to improve his French. He ended up helping hundreds of allied servicemen to escape from occupied France and paid the ultimate price, beheaded by the Nazis 29th birthday in 1943.
Gardening in the Pyrenees Orientales. April is the month when things in the garden really begin to grow so it is time to catch up with your jobs.
No matter on which side of the Spanish war people may be, they all agree on one thing — that the French border is closed up and airtight.”
Travel to and from the P-O has become more and more problematic over the past few years. Here readers share their experiences and advice.