The former ‘Maison Mazard’ in Le Soler, now destroyed, was a safe house for Dutch refugees, Jews and resistance members fleeing the nazis in the 1930s.
Elisabeth Eidenbenz was the remarkable Swiss woman who created La Maternité Suisse in Elne as a refuge for expectant mothers exiled from Spain during La Retirada and World War II.
Henry Shaftoe talks us through another architectural style, evident across the P-O: a sort of rough-hewn look that makes use of local materials: rough hewn rocks, huge pebbles (cailloux) and flattened bricks, (confusingly known as cayroux).
How was the unknown soldier chosen?
Many a Bac (equivalent of A-Levels) student has quivered at the sight of Victor Hugo’s name on the test paper… how will you fare with this 19th century poem?
Toussaint, Castanyadas, Armistice 1918 and how The Unknown Soldier was chosen, and poor old ladies of over twenty-five….
The word ‘terrorist’ actually sprung up around 1795 during the French Revolution.
It would be understandable to assume that the word ‘bonfire’ comes from a mix of French and English……
Test your French with an extract from a classic, autumnal poem by Jacques Prévert
How and when to update your Carte Vitale