Lyon 31st May 2013

My last full day in Europe was spent on a day trip from Lyon to Chalon sur Saone, the city where Opa was imprisoned and escaped in 1942, leaving his mother behind.

I went with little knowledge of what happened in that city beyond Opa's recollection, admittedly doubtful in this area (he had thought he was either in Pithiviers or Drancy). The Internet offered little information beyond that there was some sort of prison center here in 1942. I went to see if anyone in the city knew any more.

First I went to the local office of tourism. I have learned that these places throughout France are often good places to find English speakers. The women there did not know anything about any prison camps, but suggested that I should speak to someone at a war memorial museum not far away. No one there had heard of any prison site either. Theirs was a memorial to the fallen French soldiers of the war, not victims of the Holocaust, an event that barely touched their rural city.

So I did not find much success here. I even spent time wandering near the train station (thinking that likely the prison would have been near the area most of the arrests were being made, on the trains) looking for a building that matched the description given by Opa. But he admitted in his journal that his impression of the place was influenced by his small size (he thought it was an enormous building with an 8 - 10 foot wall), and it is doubtful that the building still stands today in any event, so I found nothing.

But, like with all of my travels, my time in Chalon sur Saone will help me better write the parts of the story that take place here with better accuracy, so the day was not a wash.

It is both strange and exciting to think that it is nearly time to go home. I am very happy and proud of my accomplishments on this trip.

Tomorrow will be spent mostly on trains to Paris and then Amsterdam where I will stay overnight in the airport and I fly home around 1 PM local time on the 2nd to New York City. It is an eight hour flight, but because of the time difference I will land around 3 PM Eastern, and then I have one more flight to Detroit and I fly from there to Burlington. I am not looking forward to that jet lag!

Until tomorrow!