I arrived in Cluny late yesterday – exhausted but pleased to have completed my second full day.

Cluny is a beautiful little town in the south of the newly created Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. During the war it was just south of the demarcation line making it part of the free zone. There were a number of “must see’s” for this little town before I continued my journey north.

• Pont de l’étang
• Monument to the Martyrs
• The railway station.

Each had significance to the events of February 1944.

Yesterday was so hot and a very long ride. I counted that I drank 11 bidons of water during the day. I can’t thank Vincent enough for his top advice that if you are short of water there is always fresh water at a cemetery. I did that twice.

Relive ‘Jour 3 to Creacy’

On 14th February 1944, the Nazis cordoned off the city of Cluny, a town with a proud religious history and the home of the National School of Arts and Crafts. Once the cordon was complete, they proceeded to round up its inhabitants, 45 men, 19 women and 12 children from outside of the town, near to the Pont de l’Étang and then transferred to the Montluc Prison in Lyon. Later, these men were deported to the Nazi concentration and extermination camps at Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Auschwitz and Neuengamme. The women were sent to Ravensbrück.

Of the 76 citizens detained that day 41 never returned from the camps. Amongst those arrested was a teacher at the Lycée, Marie-Louise Zimberlin. Marie-Louise was arrested in front of her class for her “Resistance activities”. The “l’Amicale des déportés” help ensure that the story of this tragic event is never forgotten.