Following in Nancy Wake's Footsteps - Part A

The Toulouse train station

In April 2025, I flew to Paris, eager to follow in Nancy Wake's footsteps. I had one night to recover from the long journey before catching a train to Toulouse, where I would meet my son Tristan, a naval officer, and his Irish girlfriend, Caoimhe. They had agreed to join me on Nancy Wake's epic bike journey through the Auvergne region.

We picked up our hire bikes but, because of delays at the bike shop, missed the train we had hoped to catch. Instead, we caught the next one, which took twice as long and meant we wouldn't reach Châteauroux until dusk.

At one of the halfway stops, pickpockets targeted us, but we were onto them and managed to avoid their sleight of hand.

Tristan and Caoimhe at the Chateauroux cafe

We cycled to our accommodation and then headed out for dinner at a small café nearby. The food was superb and the wine was just what we needed after a long day of travelling.

The next morning, we cycled into town and followed the cobbled ring road around the ancient buildings. We were hoping to find the tavern where Nancy had tried to get an urgent radio message sent. Across the road, a hunchbacked radio operator was supposed to receive it, but Nancy had no luck.

Nor did we.

 

The long road through the Auvergne

Chateauroux ring road

What should have been a four-hour cycle journey turned into a ten-hour slog through torrential rain. The 'shortcut' took us through green meadows, muddy farm tracks and dirt roads. We often had to backtrack when we reached a dead end of blackberry bushes or tracks too muddy for our wheels. Nancy never mentioned these hardships. She had more to worry about: trucks filled with German soldiers and Nazi checkpoints.

Late that night, we finally found our accommodation. We stripped off our sodden clothes, ran a hot bath and drank hot Milos to revive ourselves. My son said, "I can't believe I'm spending my holidays doing this. It's not what I expected."

They had chosen pushbikes over electric bikes. I was twice their age and  reasonably cycle-fit after biking every day for a year, but I didn't want to slow them down on a pushbike. I chose an electric bike and wasn't particularly popular when I overtook them on steep hills!

The many paddocks we rode through

 The next day was a reprieve. The track followed a canal towards Montluçon, with no hills to contend with. We stopped for lunch at the café where Nancy had eaten dinner on the first night of her journey. I doubt much had changed over the years. It still had a wooden bar counter and a view over the canal. Nancy had listened for gossip about the surrounding towns and where it was safe to cycle. We listened to piped music from the bar.

 

 

Exploring Nancy's Resistance country

The lake where Nancy swam after a fight

For the next three days, we stayed in Montluçon and hired a car. This was the area where Nancy spent much of her time with the French Resistance.

We visited the forest where she had hidden, now a working forestry operation. We saw the lake she might have swum in after a nasty fight with the Germans, and stopped for a walk through the town where she first landed by parachute and later blew up a bridge. The townspeople cheered her.

By this stage, my son was becoming a little tired of my Nancy Wake touring, so he drove us to a winery to sample the wines!

The next day we drove to Vichy. We had hoped to swim in the mineral hot pools, but the town baths were now just a memorial, with the pools empty. The town square where Nancy had celebrated before hearing the terrible news from home was still there, although the Nazi flags were long gone. Instead, we sat beside the picturesque lake and ate our lunch.

On the way back, we took a detour, hoping to find the château where Nancy had worked from during the last two months of the war. We came to a driveway that looked as though it might be the place. My son opted to stay in the car while Caoimhe and I walked up the leafy driveway. And there it was!

We had reached the back of the château, the place where Nancy had stood on the steps to accept flowers from the Spanish fighters. Resistance fighters had saluted her as they marched around the château. I was thrilled to bits to find this chateau as there are hardly any photos of it anywhere. It felt like we were there with her and the Resistance fighters.

To be continued...