In which Sid and Doris leave the Loire and visit a memorial to the French forces in fighting in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria from 1952 to 1962.
First to explain that Chateau Chinon is a small hill town about 340 kms from Chateau de Chinon on the Loire, west of Tours. Do not get mixed up.
We are into the hills after days on the Loire and our host at the Cafe de Velo warns us the Morvan National Park will be hilly. Certainly the final climb gives us something to look forward to. As result we begin to have electric vehicle range anxiety for Doris’s bike, and are relieved that the lunch menu du jour at Rouy seems to include free charging. Phew, as the morning has been rough on legs and battery.
At Chatillon en Bazois we come across this memorial to French forces fighting in North Africa in the 1950s and ‘60s. Algeria was so a part of France that actually it was split into three departements and sent deputies to Paris. Morocco and Tunisia were protectorates or colonies, along with most of north west Africa from the late 1800s. There was much infrastructure laid down. The Romans and British left lots of transport systems. You need to move armies around and produce out.
Locals, now French educated, started to demand independence between the wars, though Tunisia was taken by Germany in 1942. After WW2 French forces were charged with fighting the guerilla movements. The post war independence wars and civil wars are too much for a Sid paragraph, but do look it up.
They were very ugly wars, ending in Algeria in 1962. Harkis, locals who fought for the French came in for reprisals. Maybe 800,00 Pieds Noirs, French living in Algeria, came to France and some Harkis were accepted. The Pieds Noirs were bitter they had been let down. See also Day of the Jackal.
The memorial simply records the French deaths from the Nivernais region and says the men did their duty. Somewhere they might have a Vietnam memorial, and the British something for the Malaya Emergency.
Twenty minutes later we are in the serene Romanesque church at Ougny.
S and D are glad to postpone the long climb up to the Logis at Chateau-Chinon. The town has a Calvary and two viewpoints across the Morvan.
The town was the political base of Francois Mitterrand, who was President from 1981 to 1995. They had seven year terms then. He was a controversial figure as his Vichy/Resistance/Socialist record was always in question. The elite knew he had two families but the media said nothing. One of his illegitimate children (do we still say that?) lives in Nevers.
Up by the Calvary are radio and micro wave masts. In the hotel Doris spots this.
Finally this if you care to read it over from 1962.