Wednesday 13 October 2021

World War Two French Resistance in the Loire Valley – La Roche Posay Hostage Crisis.

La Roche Posay is a small spa town about a ten minutes car journey from where we live. The water here is high in selenium and is the basis of skin care products in l’Oréal’s La Roche Posay range. L’Oréal owns much of the commercial centre of town and before the Covid19 pandemic there were big plans announced of a huge investment into the community infrastructure to turn the town into a luxury spa resort with access to cutting edge skin care treatments. If you have an intractable skin condition in France, your doctor may well give you a prescription for two weeks in La Roche Posay to ‘take the cure’, all paid for by your State health insurance. Visitors to the town’s spas are known as curistes. But that is today, when all is peaceful, if you are interested I will tell you about a frightening incident that occurred here 76 years ago, only a day after the liberation of Paris.

 

Square Abbe Brand, La Roche Posay, Vienne, France. Photo by Loire Valley Time Travel.
The square in La Roche Posay is named after a local hero of the Second World War.

 

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