France Under The Jackboot – Soe, Sas & The French Resistance

Itinerary

• Day 1

  Local departure by coach or Door-to-Door service then, to Beauvais or Compiegne, north of Paris for two nights.

• Day 2 - Battle of France

  We start by looking at the German Blitzkrieg in 1940 and the Fall of France. We see where the Germans humiliated France by forcing them to surrender where the Armistice of 1918 was signed, seeing the museum here. In the Compiegne Forest we see where Paris’ Jews were deported by train to Concentration Camps. In the afternoon we visit the Compiegne Memorial Museum, looking at the Holocaust in this part of France, and end the day by visiting the graves of French soldiers who fell in defence of Paris. Please note: for 2023/4 the Resistance Museum at Tergnier is closed for a major refit and will not reopen for some time. Instead, we will visit the Memorial at Compiegne in its place. Included meals: Breakfast

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 3 - The Holocaust in Paris

  Today we focus on the experience of the Jewish community in Paris during WW2 seeing the Holocaust Memorial site at Drancy which served as a Concentration Camp before those held here were sent off to camps in Germany and in the East. We view where the camp was, see the memorials and the Visitors Centre*. In the afternoon we depart for Limoges for two nights.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 4 - SOE in Limoges; Oradour-sur-Glane

  In the morning we follow the trail of SOE Agent Violette Szabo close to Limoges, seeing the village where she was sheltered, the area where she was dropped in and the ground where she was captured. In the afternoon we visit the village of Oradour sur Glane which was wiped out by SS troops in 1944. Now preserved as a memorial site, we enter through the visitors centre to learn of this tragic event from WW2 and spend the afternoon among the deserted streets left just as they were in 1944.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 5 - SOE Memorial

  We depart Limoges and examine the role of British Special Air Service troops behind enemy lines in occupied France and visit the SOE Memorial at Valençay. We then depart for Amiens where we stay for two nights.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 6 - Amiens Prison & French Resistance

  Today we look at the French resistance in northern France travelling to the Resistance Museum at Bondues near Lille. After lunch in Arras, we visit the ‘Mur des Fusillies’: the moat of an old fort where members of the Resistance were executed during WWII, now a poignant memorial site. We then travel to Amiens seeing where the attack on Amiens Prison took place. Here RAF Mosquitos bombed the prison. We also visit the graves of the RAF crews in the nearby cemetery.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 7

  Return home.

  Meals - Breakfast

Accommodation

You will stay for two nights in Compiegne, near Paris at a 3-star hotel, then two nights at the 3-star B&B Limoges 3 and finally two nights at the 3-star Holiday Inn Express Amiens, or the B&B Amiens Centre Cathedrale.