Bijou’s War is a true WWII story of one French teenage girl’s reckless resistance to her despised occupiers. Fourteen at the start of the war, Claire-Marie LeVeel was sent to the relative safety of the Normandy countryside, along with her mother, sister, grandmothers, and great aunt. Her father stayed behind in his official job as the harbormaster and chief engineer of Cherbourg harbor, and his secret work in helping downed Allied pilots return to England.
The story’s conversational tone belies the life-threatening forces bearing down on the LeVeel family. Bijou persists in cutting telegraph wires, breaking into barracks, and defying orders even as tensions mount leading up to D-Day. Bijou’s beloved Papa, cut off from all communication, is ensconced in his work at the port whose recapture will be a prime objective of the Allied invasion. Not knowing what the Germans will do when all is lost, the family comes to fear what they long for most – battle for their liberation.
Bijou’s War is a true WWII story of one French teenage girl’s reckless resistance to her despised occupiers. Fourteen at the start of the war, Claire-Marie LeVeel was sent to the relative safety of the Normandy countryside, along with her mother, sister, grandmothers, and great aunt. Her father stayed behind in his official job as the harbormaster and chief engineer of Cherbourg harbor, and his secret work in helping downed Allied pilots return to England.
The story’s conversational tone belies the life-threatening forces bearing down on the LeVeel family. Bijou persists in cutting telegraph wires, breaking into barracks, and defying orders even as tensions mount leading up to D-Day. Bijou’s beloved Papa, cut off from all communication, is ensconced in his work at the port whose recapture will be a prime objective of the Allied invasion. Not knowing what the Germans will do when all is lost, the family comes to fear what they long for most – battle for their liberation.