It’s the time of year when we’re thinking of the liberation of France, Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands. But 2021, sadly, is not the year to go tour the beaches of Normandy or see any of the sites of Liberation. But we can dream, and to help you plan your next tour of WWII sites in western Europe, I’d like to suggest the following sites that commemorate Dutch-Paris.
We’ll begin with memorial treks for those of you with strong legs and a desire to see for yourself what it really must have been like to cross the Pyrenees on foot. And if that’s your goal, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to start training now.

The Maison de la Chemin de la Liberté in Saint-Girons, Ariège, France, houses a fine museum of the escape lines that ran through the Ariège. Although it’s a little to the east of most of Dutch-Paris’s routes, they do have a nice exhibit about the line. And they offer memorial treks. If you click on “La marche du souvenir” on the left side menu, you will see that they are not kidding about taking you into Spain the hard way.

https://www.chemindelaliberte.fr/ (If you scroll down and click on the British flag, it will take you to the English language version of the site)

Alternatively, you could sign up for one of the memorial treks run by the Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS, https://ww2escapelines.co.uk/ ) ELMS began as a charity dedicated to assisting former helpers. Now that most of them have passed on, they are busy reaching out to the younger generation in a variety of excellent ways. And they also guide memorial treks in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Just click on the “Freedom Trails” tab to find out all the possibilities. There’s quite a lot of good research about escape lines on the page, so even if you will never cross the mountains on foot you can still learn a lot about the experience.