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Terre Courage: Paths of Resistance in the French Pyrenees
How a random sign changed my perception of the landscape
The last steps approaching the summit of Mont Ceint (also known as Pic de Girantès) were tough. My legs were propelled by anticipating the 360° panorama I’d get over the ridges and valleys of the French Pyrenees. But what was that strange contraption on the summit? From behind it looked like a parking meter — on a grassy 2088 metre mountain?
Rather than the usual cairn or iron cross marking the summit, there was a pole with a crudely painted notice protected by a plastic hood. A spiral of wire fastened a jam jar containing a rolled-up visitors’ notebook to the pole. In spidery red handwriting, the sign announced how the writer, 85-year-old Jean-Marie Claustre, reached the summit earlier that year (2014). He was commemorating the time he’d climbed it as a 14-year-old shepherd boy.
Back in 1943, Jean-Marie was a casual helper for the French Resistance, using his shepherd status to secretly survey the valleys for German patrols. This is the very south of the French Pyrenees, running parallel with the Spanish border. In 1943 it was a German Reservation Zone, and anyone attempting to flee to Spain had to pass through it under cover of night. Jean-Marie’s father asked him to look out for the German occupiers…
