In Focus - Discover France: Experience the Best of France - page 710

Desperate to forget the ravages of the war, Paris sparkled as the centre of the
avant-garde in the 1920s and 1930s. The liberal atmosphere (not to mention the
cheap booze and saucy nightlife) attracted a stream of foreign artists and writers to
the city, and helped establish Paris' enduring reputation for creativity and experi-
mentation.
The French Resistance
Despite the myth of 'la France résistante' (the French Resistance), the underground
movement never actually included more than 5% of the population. The other 95% either
collaborated or did nothing. Resistance members engaged in railway sabotage, collected
intelligence for the Allies, helped Allied airmen who had been shot down and published
anti-German leaflets, among other activities. Though the impact of their actions was relat-
ively slight, the Resistance served as an enormous boost to French morale - not to men-
tion the inspiration for numerous literary and cinematic endeavours.
WWII
Unfortunately, the inter-war party was short-lived. Two days after Germany invaded
Poland in 1939, France joined Britain in declaring war on Germany. Within a year,
Hitler's blitzkrieg had swept across Europe, and France was forced into humiliating
capitulation in June the same year. Following the seaborne retreat of the British Ex-
peditionary Force at Dunkirk, France - like much of Europe - found itself under
Nazi occupation.
The Germans divided France into two zones: the west and north (including Par-
is), which was under direct German rule; and a puppet-state in the south based
around the spa town of Vichy. The anti-semitic Vichy regime proved very helpful to
the Nazis in rounding up Jews and other undesirables for deportation to the death
camps.
After four years of occupation, on 6 June 1944 Allied forces returned to French
soil during the D-Day Landings. Over 100,000 Allied troops stormed the Normandy
coastline and, after several months of fighting, liberated Paris on 25 August. But the
cost of the war had been devastating for France: half a million buildings had been
destroyed, many cities had been razed to the ground and millions of French people
had lost their lives.