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.
Céret is the undisputed cherry capital of the P-O, and probably the whole of France, its cherry trees the last of the spring fruits to blossom but the first to bear fruit. By May, the first cherries of the season are on their way to the President of France, and stalls, trestle tables, and rickety makeshift benches laden with the fruit appear on every street corner, in garages, lay-bys and the Saturday market.
We all learn differently, and as we grow older, one of the greatest blocks to learning is memory. And yet many of us can still sing along to new songs – and remember the words!
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.
Many of us have taken to the hot springs of Dorres without knowing anything of its interesting history during the Second World War. The fashionable contempt in which the French hold the clergy seems to have been completely unjustified in that era…..but judge for yourselves.
From their small grocery shop in Perpignan, the 3 courageous Sabaté women, joined the fight against fascism.
In 1940, Louis Torcatis joined the French Resistance under the pseudonym Bouloc and became head of the secret army of Languedoc Roussillon.
May is the time when results really begin to show. The pleasure of being in a well-stocked, colourful and fragrant garden is really apparent, and if the weather is warm enough even swimming may be possible for those of us who are hardy enough, although the water will still be about 20 deg.C.