THIS car reminded me of the secret reconnaissance of war films, but the Peugeot 203 first came out in 1948, writes Carol Miers.
I spoke recently to a man, a former member of the Resistance, who having been denounced was facing a death sentence but was exchanged for a German, walking out along a road thinking it was his last, to be met by friends instead.
I couldn’t say that exchange took place in a wood. But the car could have any number of histories.
Here in the woods, where it is, the Resistance were certainly around; it’s thick with history. Perhaps everyone left to forget it, but there are many stories.
One group of Resistance men did share a car, sometimes driven I think by a non-sympathiser and putting them in great danger.
It’s true that in Sebastian Faulkes style, a Charlotte Gray rendezvous took place in this locale.
But the courage and purpose of certain people was unquestionable whilst others it’s said made it a mixed bag, a mingling motley crew.
This car, what of it’s roots and origins? Still to be traced.
Here then as a small fading record of an age which people are fast trying to piece together, in film and on the page before our historians disappear.
It evokes the wish to answer so many questions, as it is rusting away, another mass-produced item rotting silently through the winters.
Only a handful of people know it’s here, in the once populated area. I think about 50 people lived in the nearby lieu-dit some forty years ago, when the chrome shone on the wings, and it was proudly driven along the tracks.
Now only three people live here.
The wish to record and to restore and find the history is as deep as the wish to rejuvenate the villages and idle woods, the desire that more people should see this changing country, and bring back to life the wilderness, the rusting car hidden in this nondescript copse.
Carol Miers has recently launched the Dordogne Life website.
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4 responses to “The story of the Peugeot left in the woods”
Wow, who know a Peugeot had such a story to tell!
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When I bought my first house in France, 37 years ago, this car was in my barn. Eventually I asked the vendor if he could remove it. He dragged it to the woods behind a tractor and dumped it. Just 200 yards from the house, it is still there today; as proved by your article.
It’s interesting to note that, after 37 years in the open, if you give the black paintwork a light rub, it comes up like new.
Hi
Yes the body work is in pretty good shape and the glass windows are, of course, intact. I have to ask you if the vendor/37 yrs ago – in the early 7o’s? – had been driving it recently, and was it used a bit like a VOLVO is today? or never in that bracket? I mean did these cars have a modern day equivalent?
It’s looking like a restoration project!
In 1972 the car was still save-able, but had been unused for many years. I only asked him to remove it because I needed the space for my own VW Beetle. I suppose I could have kept it, but….
Another neighbour found a Citroen Traction Avant (Maigret style) in her barn, that was eventually also removed to the woods. I’ll take you to see it one day; if you haven’t found it already.