On the frontiers of freedom

Our project aims to "heritage" the painful and glorious experience of leaving and being uprooted by some of those who chose, at their peril, not to settle for a Europe under the Nazi yoke. They agreed to temporarily abandon their jobs, families and homelands. They accepted the physical challenge of crossing the mountains, and took the risk of transgressing a border guarded by 3,170 Germans, not counting the repressive French forces. It should be remembered that at least 1,500 people were deported as a result of their escape. There were 3 main phases of escape: first, the racially persecuted and intellectuals; then the Resistance fighters who joined General de Gaulle in London or the Allied airmen; and finally, those who refused compulsory labor service in Germany and headed for North Africa. Most of these escapees returned to the Allied armies to liberate Europe from the Nazi yoke. For a long time, however, only a few books, steles and signposted itineraries in each of the French Pyrenean departments provided an insight into this phenomenon, which is unique in Europe. As a first step, our Scientific Committee set out to identify the cultural reasons why the Pyrenees escape occupies such a minor place in the memory of the European Resistance.

Along the 430-kilometre length of the Pyrenees, the Itinéraires Liberté Pyrénées Europe " criss-cross a natural, unspoilt environment (Pyrenees National Park). From the plain and its rivers (Bidassoa, Neste, Garonne, Ariège, Têt...), in the Pyrenean foothills and up to the highest peaks (31 over 3000 meters), the diversity of the territories and the exceptional richness of the heritage offer themselves to all: 3 Unesco classified sites (Cirque de Gavarnie, Canal du Midi, the paths of Saint Jacques de Compostelle), 10 major sites of the Occitanie region, 22 of the most beautiful villages in France, 36 cathedrals... a majestic and bewitching atmosphere.