Paris WWII and Resistance walking tours

Paris Walks offers some tours about the Resistance. I’ve taken about half a dozen tours with them, although my most recent experience was in 2017.

https://www.paris-walks.com/index_m.html

Not a tour suggestion, but in case you haven't ever visited, I wanted to recommend the Musée de la Libération de Paris - Musée du Général Leclerc - Musée Jean Moulin. It is not often included in the list of fascinating tour sites for some reason. Free!! as one of the City of Paris museums. https://www.museeliberation-leclerc-moulin.paris.fr/en/museum

I spent a full morning last fall. You descend into the bunker used as a command headquarters for the liberation. Much info on resistance fighters. Very moving - I don't know how I missed it in many prior visits to Paris. (It is across from the Catacombs if that is also an interest)

The other wonderful museum is the Museum of the Order of the Liberation, within the larger Musée de l'Armée.
https://www.musee-armee.fr/en/your-visit/museum-spaces/musee-de-lordre-de-la-liberation.html

And, of course, the WWII exhibits within the Musée de l'Armée.

You may be familiar with these museum sites - if so, perhaps info for others with similar interests.

"I don't know how I missed it in many prior visits to Paris."

It didn't open in it's current location until October 2019. Before that it was in or near Gare Montparnasse although I never went to it in that location. It's a marvelous museum, isn't it? To me the best stuff is after you go downstairs and see the stories of the resistance fighters.

As to walks, I've done the Paris Walks tour of the Right Bank Paris during the Occupation walk twice although before Covid. They still have the same leaders who are both excellent. (Brad and Christopher)

EVERY THURSDAY 10.30am Paris during the Occupation and Liberation
On this walk in the area of the Tuileries gardens, place Vendome, Concorde and Champs Elysées, hear
how the Parisians survived the dark years of the Occupation from 1940-44 with stories of daily life, the
Gestapo, the plight of the Jews, the Resistance and the Liberation. Meet at metro Tuileries

http://www.paris-walks.com/cariboost_files/2023_20SEPTEMBER_20WALKS_202.pdf

I've also done their Left Bank circuit but the group was big and I was having trouble hearing the leader over the traffic so dropped off. I do not think that leader is still with the company post-Covid. I've not seen the name mentioned so I will try that again some time.

IF the timings don't work for you, you can set up a private walk with Paris Walks. A friend and I did that one time as we wanted to do a particular one but kept missing the time frame. It was completely worthwhile to us and Oriel, one of the owners was very easy to work with.

DeGaulle's contribution to the post-war resistance "mythology" has been well documented, but none-the-less, the actual existence and impact of French citizen resisters actively working against the Nazi occupiers is also well documented.

Periscope, perhaps your measure of a resistance movement is strictly numbers? Should we compare those numbers of people identified as resistants with non-collaborative citizens (whose passive resistance is not as obvious as those involved in the maquis and overt resistance cells) and those who were active collaborators?

To me, there is much to be learned from a study of disruption and occupation on a national level, uncertain times, terror, ambiguity, confusion, and the actions of individual citizens. I always walk away grateful for the securities I have had.

@Periscope-If you saying there was no well-organized large fighting group known as the Resistance, then you may be right. However, to say there was no Resistance in France is quite patently false.Small groups of people hid Jews, helped forge papers to get people out of France and more came on board naturally when the Allies landed and people could see an end.

It's like saying there was no Underground Railroad. It may have not been the large organized group that is often mentioned but more likely small groups of people helping our runaway slaves.

History is all a bit more complicated then what you read in the books.

I took the Paris walks tour several years ago. If the goal was to make history boring and make the liberation of Paris sound like an anti-climactic event, mission accomplished. I could not believe how boring he made it all sound. Now maybe it was just my tour guide but I don’t know that it’s a risk I take again.

I took Cory Frye, a French Frye in Paris, tour of the Latin Quarter about a year agp and it focused a lot on the liberation during World War II and he did a great job. I would strongly recommend him over Paris Walks. He’s more expensive but you get what you pay for my opinion.

I’m sure there are a lot of other really good options out there

And I’m sure the people who lost their lives as part of the resistance are pleased to know that at least one post on here deems then unimportant The other thing that is documented is the resistance was led quite often by the communist, and the the post war leaders definitely wanted to belittle their role and ensure they had no role in history. They didn’t fit what they wanted history to be.

Not sure of your point, Periscope.

My point above is that the number of people participating in such incidents is not easily quantifiable, but certainly took personal courage. Incidents that provide further evidence of "resistance movements" that you suggest didn't exist.

Whenever the subject of resistance to the Germans in WW2 comes up, I always wonder about what I would have actually done. From the safety of the 21st Century, I like to think I would have courageously defied them and that I would be remembered to this day for my courage.

We discussed this topic with Tour Guide Kevin in Nuremberg. He pointed out that like most of the "law abiding" German citizens, we (including him), would probably have been complicit. Maybe not hunting down Jews, but maybe not doing what we could to protect them.

Anyone who so much as threw a rock at the Germans as they ran out of Paris deserves our respect.

To say there wasn't much of a Resistance is an outrage to all the brave men and women who died defying the Nazis. Even though the majority of French did not join the Resistance, it is fair to say that many died due to their resistance efforts. And it's also fair to say that those who fought in the Resistance and died should be lauded for their bravery and sacrifice.

Eisenhower himself said that the war wouldn't have been won without the French as well as the FFI (Is Paris Burning?).

As for not being a cohesive unit, that's true. But one has to remember there were no communications, with the exception of radios, that were under constant threat of discovery. Discovery meant certain death. There were no telephones.

In the context of the times, I'd say the FFI did as well as could be expected and in many cases, outdid themselves.. Their failures weren't due lack of trying.

You might want to read - Is Paris Burning or A Woman of No importance, both deal with the resistance. I too, can recommend Paris Walks. Have taken 2 and will return this October to take two more.

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Carol brought up an important point: one of the largest resistance groups was organized by the Communists. The post war power plays to install a centrist government and US money helped minimize the role of the Communists.

@Ellen - please report back about the tours you take! And A Woman of No Importance is in my car's TBR pile! (that means it's super important lol)

We’ve been on three Paris Walks in the last 5 years or so. Most recently, we took the Resistance and Liberation walk in March 2022. I am usually easily bored by that kind of presentation, but I would highly recommend their tours. I felt that there was a good balance of moving and talking. We made a point of going to the LeClerc Liberation Museum beforehand and that definitely enhanced our experience on the walk.

Sounds like most you got a better tour guide than I did on that Part s Walks tour. As I said, it was the most boring tour I’ve ever been on.😂

I’ve always been very happy London walks, but I’ve never gone back to Paris wants after that fiasco.

The vast majority of "resistors" simply provided intelligence to the allies—which was indeed very valuable and risky. But to do anything more such as violence to the Germans, or commit any act of sabotage, would likely condemn your family—or any random family or town—to death. Most of those stories are just myth. Sure, once the U.S. and Free French forces rolled into Paris some people took out hidden rifles and took pot shots at the fleeing Germans, but at that point, the battle for Paris was already effectively over. An excellent book on the subject is Anthony Beevor's Paris After the Liberation.

The French resistance being a myth would come as a great surprise to Jean Moulin who was executed by Klaus Barbie in July of 1943 after he and others in his group were arrested June 21, 1943. Many people, including British agents who were operating to support resistance groups, gave their lives during nazi occupation.

I never said the entire French resistance was a myth, but the claims there were many people knocking off German soldiers or sabotaging railways and telephone lines are just not true (until the Germans were on the run after D-day anyway). As stated, most of the resistance activities were purely intelligence related. But even that was very dangerous—but very important to the allies' objectives. The Germans tended to retaliate in extremely brutal ways—including the offender's family and entire villages sometimes. Their retaliation was very effective psychologically.

Please stop. If you guys want to argue about a topic start another discussion thread.

The OP was interested in learning about WWII sites in Paris along with Resistance sites.

If one claims that there was no resistance movement, that assertion is historically totally inaccurate. It is accurate that the activities of the Resistance did not start until 1942. It was the Resistance in the Tulle area that held up the 2nd SS Panzer Division from reaching Normandy. It was the activities of the Resistance that resulted in the atrocity at Oradour-sur-Glane.

See the memorial to the Resistance in Vercours, pretty grim stuff when you know what happened there. I saw it in 1999.

If there was no resistance movement, then the British would have been wasting their time broadcasting the 2 verses of Verlaine's poem telling the Resistance to await the landings and also the landings were imminent.

Lyon has the Resistance and Deportation Museum which I visited several years ago.

Bonjour.

Véro, French native and France-based Rick Steves tour guide here.

Based on this comment thread and some of the statements I've just read about the French Resistance, I'd say it's an excellent idea to enlist the services of a tour guide specializing in WWII and the German Occupation while in Paris (and other parts of France as well.) ;-)

I can recommend
https://www.samuellopezbarrantes.com/pariswalks

There are more worthwhile companies/guides out there as well.

As a side note, some French citizens and foreigners living in France started resisting ("faire acte de résistance" in French) as soon as they heard General de Gaulle's famous radio appeal in June 1940. The bravest ones joined him in London. Those groups were small, disorganized, mostly local. Many belonged to the Communist party. The first contacts between DeGaulle, the FFI and these groups date back to 1941. -- It took the unwavering efforts of one of France's bravest (and most fascinating) civil servants, Jean Moulin, to try and regroup all these local networks into larger organizations from Lyon in 1942 and 1943. As such Lyon is known as "the Capital of the French Resistance." -- For those of you interested in quality TV, I recommend an excellent series available outside France, "Un Village Français" (a French Village.) Seven seasons of the series detail the life and impossible choices many of my countrymen had to make during the German Occupation and doesn't shy away from the good, the bad or the ugly. Eye-opening and miles away from soundbites routinely found on social media. Give it a try?

Happy travels.

The French Village is an excellent series. Well worth watching. We found it on the streaming service MHz which is focussed on European programs.

Thanks, Veronques, for your post and historical explanation. De Gaulle's broadcast in June of 1940 (prior to the event at Compiegne where Hitler appears) reveals his keen insight in that France had lost a battle, not the war, and this war would turn out to be a world war.

The army museum in Les Invalides showed a special exhibit (summer time) either in 2001 or 2005. ( I was in Paris during both those summers) on the "La Deportation" That exhibit , as I far as I know , has never reappeared in Les Invalides. The exhibit was on a top floor , it revealed primary sources from the war on the fate of French resistance members captured.

Shown were glass display tables of execution orders, one copy in German, one copy in French. Since my reading knowledge of French was zero then, I could only understand by reading whatever documents were presented in German, basically no problem.

Grim, horrific stuff, Vollstreckungsbefehle (execution orders) written in that chilling , as was its design, Nazi bureaucratic language. The exhibit had no English explanations or translations.

I’ve taken the Paris Walks tours Paris During the Occupation and the Liberation of Paris a handful of times. I’ve mostly enjoyed them but one of the regular guides (not sure he’s still with company) was extremely talkative and, yes, boring. One unpleasant change I’ve noticed over the years is that the number of people on the walks has skyrocketed. They don’t require a booking and they don’t limit size of group. A couple of walks I was on pre-Covid were probably 40 people- MUCH too big to hear well and difficult to stay together as a group. I hate to say it but I probably wouldn’t use them again.

ellen and skunklet1771,
I am currently reading "A Woman of No Importance" and highly recommend it to anyoine interested in the history of the French resistance movement. It reads easily, but slowly, due to all the factual information included. According to my husband and his since deceased grandmere, the book is very accurate about life under German and/or Vichy rule.
My husband's grandmere lived under German occupation in WWII, with the Germans appropriating their home in Villequier, and taking their food, forcing them to wait on them under threat of violence. Their young son was 13 and threatened with being sent to serve in the German army, so they acquiesced when they had to, to keep their son with them. They were in occupied France, not Vichy France, and collaboraters were plentiful. (The grandpere was a pilot on the Seine River, from Le Havre to Paris, so to avoid being forced to pilot Germans on the river, they moved to a small farm in Villequier and tried to grow their own food. They ate lots of leeks, but couldn't grow much else.)
They were not in the resistance, but resisted nonetheless, as did many other French people, in small ways. Grandpere had a car, which he dismantled, and hid the various parts all over the farm, because the Germans were confiscating all modes of transport. Even the Germans who took over their house didn't know it was there, until someone in the village said that M._____had a car. He was beaten until he finally told them where the parts were. (Chassis under the woodpile, wheels in the hayloft, distributor in the beehive, etc.) When Grandmere had to cook them meals, each family member would spit into the food before it was served. Whenever and wherever they could, they made life more difficult for the occupiers, even if in only a small way.
Her memories were that the officers (a few of whom were SS) were cruel to the regular German soldiers, many of whom were mere boys, and unprepared to be soldiers.
When the Americans began to get close, and the Germans began their retreat, she helped the American soldiers with what food and cover she could. (Her English was near-perfect American English, having lived in the US after WWI and giving birth to her two oldest children here.) She corresponded with some of these soldiers the rest of her life.
We must not confuse the French government's acquiecense to German occupation to the often small, but diligent efforts of the everyday French citizen.
Grandpere and Grandmere were in the "unofficial reeistance", as were many other French. We must never forget their contributions.

Thanks for the story Judy. That is very sobering. I also read and watched Suite Français. As is often the case, the book was far more descriptive than the movie—although both are great. I also recommend the book Paris After the Liberation: 1944–1949 by Anthony Beevor. Beevor is a highly esteemed British historian who has written extensively about WWII. Despite the book's name, it actually covers quite a bit about occupied Paris at the beginning of the book.

https://www.antonybeevor.com/book/paris-after-the-liberation-%e2%80%a81944-1949/

I appreciate the replies and lively conversation among those who answered. I'll read more about the walks and museums.

PharmerPhil,
Just this morning I obtained "Paris After the Liberation 1944-1949", which you recommended. I look forward to reading it, along with "Suite Francaise", a novel by Ukrainian-born Irene Nemirovsky. Both are pretty long. I guess my afternoons and evenings are spoken for over the next month or so!
Merci for the suggestion.
."

I'd forgotten about something until I just now re-read Judy's poignant story of Grandpere and Grandmere.

There is a cafe on Avenue de la Motte-Picquet in the 7th that is located between Les Invalides and the actual Ecole Militaire (where Napoleon went to school). During the Occupation there were German soldiers stationed at both locations and they used to eat in Cafe Helice which is now Cafe Max.

https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/where-to-eat-in-paris/restaurant/articles/282172-chef-frederic-vardon-takes-over-cafe-max-high-place-of-the-french-resistance

https://www.cafemax.fr/en

I've walked by a number of times but have never eaten here as it is a pretty meat-heavy menu and doesn't work for me. Just gives a slightly different view of activities during the war.

Judy,

I've also read Suite Française. It is presumed to be autobiographical and is a good picture of the chaos in Paris during it's initial invasion. There is also a movie made from this book—but like most movies, it is very much abbreviated, and doesn't quite capture the mass exodus from the city.