Le musée de la Résistance en Argoat s’inscrit dans un lieu porteur de mémoire. C’est au cœur de la forêt voisine de Coatmallouen que se met en place, à partir du début du mois de juillet 1944, le maquis de Plésidy-St Connan-Coatmallouen. Fort de plusieurs centaines d’hommes, il affronte les troupes d’occupation lors des combats du 27 juillet 1944. Il participe ensuite à la libération de Guingamp et de sa région. Certains résistants du maquis partiront se battre sur le front de Lorient jusqu’au printemps 1945 tandis que d’autres prendront la route de l’est pour marcher jusqu’à Berlin.

The Museum of the Resistance in Argoat stands on a site steeped in memory. Deep in the nearby forest of Coatmallouen, the maquis (rural guerrilla group) of Plésidy-Saint Connan-Coatmallouen was set up in early July 1944. Formed of several hundred men, it took part in the fighting of 27 July 1944 against the occupying troops. It went on to participate in the liberation of Guingamp and the surrounding area. Some members of the maquis went off to fight on the Lorient front until spring 1945, while others marched east to Berlin.

The museum gives visitors an insight into the history of the Second World War and the Resistance in the Côtes-d’Armor, by means of five exhibition spaces, each identified by a different floor colour. To round off the visit, Guy Delattre’s film Les patriotes de Coatmallouen is shown continuously in the projection room. The occupation, the Resistance movement, the maquis and their allies, the maquis of Plésidy-Saint Connan, liberation: all these themes are covered by a lively exhibition that allows considerable space for audiovisual displays and first-hand accounts.

Inaugurated on 5 August 1945 by minister René Pleven, in memory of the maquis, the Étang-Neuf stela remembers the fighting which pitted the maquisards against German troops in Coatmallouen on 27 July 1944. It bears the names of the 13 patriots killed in the fighting, as well as those of their comrades who died during the liberation of Guingamp and on the Lorient front.

The centre holds the disability-friendly label Tourisme et Handicap, for mental disability and motor impairment. The entire Étang-Neuf site is accessible to people with reduced mobility. Disabled people pay a concessionary rate for access to the museum, and their carers get in free.

Gift and book shop specialising in the Second World War.

Food/drink and accommodation are available on site at the Auberge de l’Étang-Neuf, adjacent to the Musée de la Résistance en Argoat.

Special offer for groups of eight people or more: guided tour of the museum + lunch at the restaurant for € 20 per person. Booking required.

School parties welcome throughout the year: guided tours with questionnaire, workshops and teaching materials available, meetings with veterans. Learning programme produced in conjunction with a representative of the national education service.

Sources : ©Musée de la Résistance en Argoat

The history of the Aube Resistance abounds with personalities and stories. Immediately following Liberation, associations of former Resistance fighters were set up, which introduced commemorations and erected memorials to the fighting that took place in the Aube.

One such organisation, the association “Le Musée de la Résistance” was founded in 1967. Its object was to create a remembrance site for those who fought in June 1944 in the maquis of Mussy-Grancey, known as the “Montcalm maquis”, based in the forested massif between the Seine and Ource valleys. Placed under the command of Émile Alagiraude (whose code name in the Armée Secrète was Montcalm), the Montcalm maquis comprised 220 members of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior) in June 1944, at the time of the D-Day Landings, and nearly 1 200 by late July. The Resistance museum set up in Mussy-sur-Seine has its roots in the initiative of Colonel Poirier and Commander Hubert Danesini, veterans of the Armée Secrète, together with that of Gildas Bernard, Director of the Aube Departmental Archives.

Back in 1964, a touring exhibition on the Aube Resistance had been created, which presented local collections largely linked to the Mussy-Grancey maquis. Following the founding of the museum association by members of the Amicale des Combattants Volontaires de l’Armée Secrète and the Comité du Souvenir du Maquis de Mussy-Grancey, in 1967, the museum itself came into existence in 1971, in a building converted by the departmental architect, Mr Morisseau. The premises, adjoining the former gendarmerie of Mussy-sur-Seine, were loaned to the association. It was officially opened by Robert Galley on 23 May 1971, in the presence of the prefect of the Aube and the departmental councillors for Mussy and Bar-sur-Seine. After passing into the hands of the municipality in 1974, the museum became a “Musée de France” in 2002.

Today it is called the Musée de la Résistance de l’Aube. It is currently undergoing major renovation and restoration work to its building, its displays and its collections, which include equipment and clothing used by members of the maquis, deportees’ clothing, photographs, and posters linked to the Occupation or Liberation. The goal of the museum is to showcase objects and memories of the Resistance in the Aube, including other maquis (e.g. BOA, Commandos M, Libération Nord), other forms of resistance (women’s resistance, resistance outside the maquis, etc.) and other collections arising from donations or local bequests.

It is scheduled to reopen in 2021 for the general public and school visits, either as part of a cultural programme or for guided tours or unguided visits.

Website: https://museeresistanceaube.fr/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/museeresistanceaube/

Instagram: @museeresistanceaube

During World War II, Grenoble was part of the free zone until November 1942, when it was first occupied by the Italians until November 1943, then by the Germans until its liberation in August 1944. Isère is one of the French departments where movements, networks and underground Resistance maquis were particularly active.

From 1940, individual initiatives came together to form more structured movements and networks. Close to Grenoble, wide valleys surrounded by mountains and forests were a favourable geographical location for the growth of the maquis: originally maquis refuges, they would soon become combatant maquis.

The most prominent, the maquis of Vercors, should not eclipse the others in Oisans, Chartreuse, Belledonne, and Grésivaudan. The men and women who stood up to the occupiers paid a heavy price for their courageous engagement, and many of them encountered the tragic fate of deportation.

Due to the sheer number and effectiveness of the wide-ranging operations led against the enemy, Grenoble was the second of five cities honoured by the title of 'Compagnon de la Libération' in General De Gaulle's decree of 4 May 1944.

Under the tutelage of the Isère departmental council since the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Liberation, the Museum of Resistance and Deportation of Isère highlights the specific nature of the Resistance in this department of France. As well as the temporary exhibits and special events that are organised from time to time, the museum houses a permanent exhibit that offers the visitor a chronological presentation of events, developed according to themes aiming to situate Isère in the historical context of the era.

The museum tour is based on five themes: the beginning of the Resistance, the maquis, repression, the restoration of the Republic and the values of the Resistance. More than five thousand items, objects and documents from the archives illustrating daily life and the stuggle against the occupiers, reconstituting places and ambience. The visitor is invited to conclude this emotional journey with a moment's reflection on the values of the Resistance.

The museum's documentation centre is open to researchers and students as well as the general public. The computerised inventory of collections has led to the development of a library containing more than a thousand works, sound archives, and a photo and film library. The museum also offers a teaching area set aside for educators and their students before or after visiting the museum. It can be used for presentations and workshops on World War II, and offers a multimedia room and a resource and information centre for students to prepare their work on the period. Texts specifically directed at younger generations and school groups are present thoughout the museum visit. They are designed to help the youngest visitors understand the themes addressed by emphasising the links between the different elements on show in the museum and the major issues and concepts covered (especially in the context of the school curriculum).

Museum of Resistance and Deportation of Isère

14 rue Hébert - 38000 Grenoble 

Tél. 04 76 42 38 53 - Fax : 04 76 42 55 89
 

musee.mdr@cg38.fr

www.resistance-en-isere.fr

Getting there By motorway: - Motorways Lyon-Grenoble, Valence-Grenoble: Grenoble-Bastille exit - Motorway Chambéry-Grenoble: Grenoble-Centre-ville exit - Tramway: line A / Bus: Verdun bus stop - Car park: Place de Verdun or rue Hébert Opening times:

The museum is open every day except Tuesdays, 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. - From 1 September to 30 June, 9:00-18:00; - From 1 July to 31 August, 10:00-19:00. Visits: Free guided visits for individual visitors on the first Sunday of every month starting at 14:30. Group guided visits by appointment only.

Mont-Valérien was a medieval hermitage and later a popular place of pilgrimage from the 17th to 19th centuries. In the middle of 19th century one of the forts forming part of the Parisian belt was built there. During the Second World War, the site was the German authorities' principal place for executions in France. From 1944 onwards, thanks to support from General de Gaulle and the work of the organisations of the families of those who were shot, it became a memorial site. The Mémorial de la France combattante was built there in 1960 and in 2010 new museum exhibition areas were opened.

Throughout the Second World War, Mont-Valérien was used by the Germans as a place for executing resistance fighters and hostages. The prisoners were shot in a sunken glade. Recent historical research has allowed the identification of more than a thousand of those who were shot.

On the 1st November 1944, General de Gaulle paid tribute to the dead of the Résistance by first of all engaging in private prayer in the glade at Mont-Valérien, before continuing to the fort at Vincennes, another place where shootings were carried out in Paris, and finally to the cemetery in Ivry-sur-Seine, the main burial place of those from the Île-de-France area who were shot. In 1945, Mont-Valérien was chosen by General de Gaulle as the site of the monument to those who died in the 1939-1945 war.

The bodies of fifteen servicemen, symbolising the various forms of combat carried out for the Liberation, were placed in a temporary crypt and joined in 1952 by a sixteenth body representing soldiers in Indochina who fought against the Japanese. A 17th vault was later prepared to receive the remains of the last Companion of the Liberation.

In 1954, an urn containing the ashes of deportees was placed in the crypt. Having become President of the Republic, General de Gaulle decided to create the Mémorial de la France combattante, which was designed by Félix Brunau and inaugurated on the 18th June 1960.

At the beginning of 2000, it was decided to build a monument to those who were shot at Mont-Valérien, which was designed by Pascal Convert. Engraved upon it are all the names of those shot at Mont-Valérien, along with a dedication: "To the resistance fighters and hostages shot at Mont-Valérien by Nazi troops 1940-1944 and to all those who have never been identified".

For a long time Mont-Valérien has remained just as it was, which gives it a great evocative power. Since 2006, the site has been the subject of a special drive by the remembrance, heritage and archives department of the Ministry of Defence to carry out developments to provide the general public with the written resources necessary for an understanding of this important and complex, unrecognised place of national remembrance.

Located on the esplanade of the Mémorial de la France combattante, the information centre allows visitors to consulter biographical papers, as well as digitalised letters, photographs, and archive and Ile-de-France documents about those who were shot, using interactive terminals.

A special area is devoted to the Companions of the Liberation. In addition, there are screens showing archive images of the history of the shootings and about the Mémorial de la France combattante and the ceremonies that have been held there. A permanent exhibition "Résistance and repression 1940-1944" is held in the old stable building. Dedicated to the Résistance, those who were shot and repression in the Ile-de-France area, it helps to put Mont-Valérien in a historical and geographical context.

The exhibition thus retraces the development of the policies of repression and the journey of those who were shot, from their arrest and internment up to their execution. It shows the various places of imprisonment, execution and burial in the Ile-de-France. The central part is more intimate and dedicated to the last letters of those who were shot, the last traces left for their families, which bear witness to the commitment and martyrdom of these men.
 

Le Mont Valérien

Avenue du Professeur Léon Bernard 92150 Suresnes

Tel.: + 33 (0) 1 47 28 46 35

Email: info@montvalerien.fr

Tours of Mont-Valérien are free and guided; they last an hour and thirty minutes and are at set times, every day except Monday: Low Season*: 10h00, 15h00 High season*: 9h30-11h00, 14h30-16h00 Groups of more than 10 people by appointment only

The reception and information Centre is open every day except Monday, Low season*: 9 am to 12 pm and 1pm to 5 pm High season*: 9 am to 12 pm and 1pm to 6 pm Low season: November-February, July-August High season: March-June, September-October

How to get to the Memorial BY TRAIN: The Paris Saint Lazare to Versailles line to Suresnes station BY RATP: RER line A La Défense or line no. 1 La Défense and then bus no. 360 (Mont Valérien or Hôpital Foch Cluseret stops) BY TRAMWAY: Val de Seine T2 La Défense to Issy-les-Moulineaux - Suresnes: Longchamp Station BY CAR: Porte Maillot - Pont de Suresnes The site is closed to the public on the 1st January, 15th August, 1st November and 25th and 31th December.