I usually share any good find of material on the net with other mappers, and unbelievably I have yet to actually share them with everyone here through a post.

Consider it done now, with this website of very old postcards from the southern part of "Massif Central" the huge (and old) mountainous plateau of central France.

Hopefully some of you will find this particular style of architecture interesting for your own maps:

http://causses-cevennes.com/cartes-postales/

PS: Click on each village name to access their collection of post cards.

Wow...

Awesome!!!

Thanks Furyo

Cheers, Kurt

ooo... SWEET!!

Thanks Furyo! Some of my buildings are looking a bit.. plain... plus, I'm lacking in the "proper architecture of the era" area... :p

cool.

one of my favourite places on earth is the old part of Thiers, up on the hill.
i think it would make an excelent dod:S map.

Furyo do you know if there were any actual combats in the area?

btw my favourite place on earth is on the top of the puy-de-dome :cool:

That's fantastic - just what I needed for my first serious attempt at a map - cheers!

Well the whole region there was very famous for its resistance movement. The Vercors plateau isn't far either. You'll need to remember that this area was part of the Vichy regime so the resistance was harder to track because it also had help from resistants within the regime.

Obviously it wasn't as easy to infiltrate the German administration in the rest of France....

There is close to nothing in that part of France, it remains even today very rural. As such the resistance very much so had the advantage of knowing the terrain and it never really was considered by Nazis as an area of major significance. It's also very hard to access these parts by car let alone tank.

The resistance got hit very bad in 1944 there, due to the complete lack of help from the Allies (De Gaulle being the middle man here) in parachuting rations. For example a telegram was sent to De Gaulle when the Germans started parachuting down on them with 400 SS. The battle lasted over two days while being heavily outnumbered, and no help ever came (while it could easily have reached them).

This sort of thing caused a lot of resentment from resistance survivors after the war, towards both the Allies in general and De Gaulle. To them, France had never surrendered, and they hadn't received any help....All a matter of perception really...

thanks for the info Furyo.

i've spent quite a lot of time travelling in France in the past and unfortunately i wasn't as into history then as i am now.
i guessed there hadn't been much "conventional" fighting in the area as there are so many old buildings and towns still intact.

Thanks for the pics Furyo! :D

Awsome find just what I have been seaching for also :D