Chemins de la Liberté – The Path to Freedom: Maquisard walk

7 points of interest

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  The Resistance in Gervanne

  In 1943, the first Maquis in France took up residence in the village of Omblèze.
  
  The Gervanne valley was at the heart of the south-western defensive system in the Vercors during the events of 1944.
  

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  The Resistance command posts

  In January 1943, Marcel Barbu, founder of the Boimondau factory and community in Valence, bought the Mourras farm on the Combovin plateau, where he set up a camp for recusants (réfractaires in French) – men and women who refused to work for the Germans.
  
  A training school for Resistance officers was also organised there.
  
  A group of 40 or so Resistance members relocated to the village in late October 1943.
  
  Michel Prunet took command in late January of the following year. Alongside his men, he forged close ties with the people living in the valley, with some of the farms serving as command posts for the FFI (French Forces of the Interior).

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  Provisions and supplies

  Members of the Maquis made their bread in total secrecy at the Frédières farm. The flour was transported to the oven at night from the Moulin du Roy mill to the south of the village of Beaufort. It was also made covertly at the two village bakers in Beaufort.
  
  Please respect private property: keep to the path.

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  The destruction of local villages

  After two bombing raids on June 22 and 28, 1944, the enemy forces approached from the Drôme valley to the south and attacked the village on July 27.

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  Beaufort: in the eye of the storm

  After barricading the south of the village, the Germans overran it from the west and the left bank of the Gervanne to the east. At five in the afternoon, after eight hours of fighting, the enemy withdrew – but before retreating some of the soldiers in the Ost Battalion burned and pillaged the village.

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  Rebuilding

  On walking down the Vercors road, you will have seen a large number of so-called “reconstruction” houses (with grey rendering on the facades).
  
  In 1944, the "reconstruction" often reshaped the architectural appearance of the village.
  

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  Beaufort-sur-Gervanne

  With its vaulted passages, its old lanes full of history, its houses imbricated one in the other, Beaufort emits a little air of Provence. On the village square, the keep of an old castle, converted into a public garden will welcome you for a short stop. But it is especially in the Temple that the history of the village is read. Beaufort was indeed an important place of Protestantism.