- published: 03 Jun 2015
- views: 12082
Aubrac is a town in the southern Massif Central of France. The name is also applied to the surrounding landscape, which is properly called L'Aubrac in French. The Aubrac region has been a member of the Natura 2000 network since August 2006. It straddles three départements - Cantal, Aveyron and Lozère - and three régions - Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon.
This country is a volcanic and granitic plateau (1 500 km²). The volcanic eruptions are dated from 6 to 9 millions of years and were of Hawaiian type with fluid lavas. Therefore, there are not individualized volcanos. This volcanic zone dominates on the east an other part of the plateau which is made of granite. The average altitude of the plateau is about 1200 meters with its highest point at 1469 m (Signal de Mailhebiau) at the south. All the region has been eroded by glaciers during three glacial periods. The region counts four glacial lakes : lac des Salhiens, lac de Saint-Andéol, lac de Souveyrols and lac de Born. At the south, the highest summits of the Aubrac dominate the Lot valley, which is located 1000 m below.
Lucie Samuel born Lucie Bernard (June 29, 1912 – March 14, 2007), and better known as Lucie Aubrac, was a French history teacher and member of the French Resistance during World War II.
Lucie Bernard was born in Mâcon, the daughter of modest Burgundy winegrowers. She was raised in a Catholic family. In 1939, Lucie married Raymond Samuel (July 31, 1914 - April 10 2012), a Jew, whom she met in Strasbourg in December, 1939. Raymond Samuel would later come to be known as Raymond Aubrac, having had to change his surname due to open anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews in France at the time.
After the fall of France, Lucie joined the Libération-sud resistance group in Lyon after its formation by her husband. Later, she followed him to the Charles Delestraint's group. In 1941 they joined forces with Emmanuel d'Astier to run the underground newspaper, Libération, the same year their first child, Jean-Pierre, was born.
On June 21, 1943, the Gestapo captured Raymond alongside high-ranking Resistance member Jean Moulin (under the alias "Max") and many others. They were taken to Montluc prison, located near Lyon. The Nazis sought Jean Moulin in particular as he was General Charles de Gaulle's top representative in the French Resistance.