Le Grand Bornand

Market day in Le Grand Bornand

This is both a beautiful and intriguing place. Set in the mountains of the Haute Savoie, Le Grand Bornand is really a station de ski with a summer season for walkers and cyclists. The market was full of colour, noise, and smells; really atmospheric. I went in early before breakfast intending to buy baguettes, but instead bought a huge pain de compagne from a guy on a stall. It lasted more than two days!
The village is also known for the Tour de France. The famous Col de la Colombiere climbs up above the village. It has started or ended stages many times with that well known druggie Lance Armstrong winning a stage in the village in 2004.
There is a memorial plaque in the village centre to the local Resistance and to those locals killed or deported for helping the resistance.

Memorial.

A few years ago I bought Matthew Cobb's excellent book on the French Resistance and I remembered that Les Maquis were active in this area and that a famous incident had happened here but I couldn't remember the details. So I went into the Maison du Tourisme and asked if they had any information on the local history of resistance in the area. They hadn't, but when I asked about bookshops they directed me across the road to the Maison de la Presse. So I returned to where I had just bought my morning paper and euromillions ticket (I didn't win) and bought a slim volume," La Resistance en Haute Savoie." It seems that LGB has two events that happened in 1944; one very honourable and one less so, but understandable. This was an area of strong resistance both to the occupying forces and to the Vichy government. The Maquis controlled much of this mountaineous region for great parts of the war. The first occupying force was the Italian army, but when they withdrew from the war in September 1943 they were replaced by the more professional and ruthless German army.
Just above LGB is the Plateau de Glieres. At the time, it was a desolate and isolated place and there the Maquis received allied parachute drops of arms and equipment. In 1944 more than 150 young resistants came to the area from other parts of France. They were fleeing forced labour in Germany which the Vichy government has just introduced. These young men were welcomed and hidden by the villagers. The Vichy government was determined to track them down and sent their own militia - the Milice. They surrounded and laid seige to LGB. Two young men of the village were captured by them as they tried to leave the village for the Plateau. They were shot. Other villagers were arrested, their chalets burned and deported. The Milice then turned their attention to the Plateau above. The snow was deep and their attacks repelled. The Germans wouldn't wait and sent 10,000 troops. The Luftwaffe also bombed the plateau and the Maquis were defeated. Although more than 300 escaped, 120 were killed and more captured. The cruel treatment, torture and murder of the prisoners as they were readied for deportation to camps was carried out by the Milice and this fact explains what happened in the second incident.

Le cimetiere de Miliciens

The surviving Maquis were rearmed by allied drops and in August 1944 they liberated Haute Savoie before the arrival of Allied troops. Then they rounded up a hundred Milice from in and around Annecy. They were brought to LGB and a court martial was held. It was something of a parody of a trial. Coffins had been ordered before the trial was complete. 79 Milices were condemned to death and taken about 3km out of LGB and shot. As often in war, they were buried at the spot were they died. Amoung those shot, three young brothers aged 16, 17 and 18. Not so honourable, but understandable.

I decided to find the place and set off walking to the hamlet of Bouchet, but could not find it. I asked for directions in the small village and was told I had to walk into the forest and turn left on a forest path. I found it. It is the lost cemetery; it has no legal status or sign. The upkeep is carried out by the families of those shot seventy years ago. It was a very moving occasion, but I was not there alone!

My walk to Bouchet to find the lost cemetery.

When I arrived near the spot, there were two french campervans parked across the path and I had to squeeze past them and excuse myself to about half a dozen french people of my age who were having a picnic! They didn't know the cemetery was there, it is so well hidden. Then I had to give them a little lesson in french history. They were amazed and came round the cemetery with me. Back at their picnic site, I was offered food and wine, but only accepted the wine. It would have been churlish not to! It turned out that they were from Toulouse and, of course, we then talked about rugby. They had heard of Sale but didn't seem impressed. I took my leave and walked through beautiful mountain scenery back to LGB thinking all the time of all those events seventy years ago.