Boucle du maquis Bernard

This walk takes you in the footsteps of the largest maquis in the Morvan, the Bernard maquis. Founded in 1943, it numbered 1,200 men and women by September 1944. In the woods you will be walking through, particularly between Coeuzon and the hamlet of La Verrerie, a veritable secret army was at work, made up of maquisards, British parachutists from the Special Air Service (S.A.S) and agents from the Nivernais Resistance headquarters. A large camp was set up, including a field hospital with a mobile surgical unit, a prison (the former Coeuzon tacot station), the maquisards' huts, the S.A.S. camp, markers for the parachute drop sites and a Franco-British cemetery. As you walk through these places, using your imagination, the on-site installations and the commemorative panels, you will be moved by the story of these shadowy fighters, guided by a common ideal of freedom. The actions of this maquis enabled the commune of Ouroux en Morvan to become the prefecture of the Nièvre during the summer of 1944, as this part of the territory was liberated before the rest of the department.