Traveling
Tuesday: The Grand Risoux Forest
With over 2,200 continue hectares (nearly 5,500 acres
or 22 square km), the Risoux forest is the largest forest in Europe. Forming a
natural border between France and Switzerland, the forest lines the edge of the
Vallée de Joux in the Jura Mountains. The Vallée is well-known for its watch
and cheese making, but during WWII, the area became one of many routes used by
fugitives from France into Switzerland. The border is a dry stone wall with
Fleur-de-Lis decorating it and stands approximately three feet tall making escape
was somewhat easy as long as German troops were avoided.
A group of French and Swiss friends became known as
the Passeurs du Risoud and helped countless downed pilots, those in danger of
deportation, and escaped prisoners make it over the border. In addition to
smuggling humans, the group passed confidential documents about troop numbers
and movements to the British Embassy in Lausanne as well as armaments.
To make it more difficult for the Nazis to track them,
the Passeurs formed multiple routes through the forest, many of which are still
apparent. Soldiers patrolled the French side of the forest twenty-four hours a
day, and anyone found within the two kilometer forbidden zone was shot on
sight.
After arriving in Switzerland, the group would hide in
one the two wooden huts (L’Hôtel d’Italie and Le Rendezvous des Sages) in order
to rest. Then the Passeurs would go home under cover of darkness, and the escapees
would continue the ten kilometer journey from the border to the place where they
registered as illegal foreigners, then to an internment camp for the remainder
of the war. Many downed military personnel did not register and continued their
escape to Allied soil.
A secret mission. A fake bride. A run for their lives.
According to the OSS training manual, the life
expectancy of a radio operator in Nazi-occupied France is six weeks. Partnered
with one of the agency’s top spies, Gerard Lucas, newly-minted agent Emily
Strealer plans to beat those odds. Then their cover is blown and all bets are
off. The border to neutral Switzerland is three hundred
miles away—a long way to run with SS soldiers on their heels.
Will Emily and Gerard survive the journey?
And what about their hearts? Nothing in the manual
prepared them for falling in love.
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