A BRIDGE TO ELNE is based on a true story of a courageous family who endured the German occupation of France during WWII. Marcel Pointer is a successful dentist in Marseille until Nazi brutality leads him to join the Maquis, the militant branch of the French R sistance. He conducts several successful raids against the Vichy and the Germans, and is arrested by the Gestapo. After beating and interrogating him without obtaining evidence of his guilt, they finally release him. Aware of the increased danger, he decides to move his wife Angelina and their four children to Elne, a small village at the foot of the Pyrenees near the Mediterranean Sea. He returns to fight, leaving them with Paul and Elizabeth Courty, Angelina's parents, and her sister Paulette. In November 1942, the Germans move their troops into the southern, unoccupied zone of France. Captain Johann Weller is sent to Elne with his German engineering battalion to build fortifications along the Mediterranean coast. Each family in the village is ordered to house a German officer. Johann is assigned to the Courty home. At first there is much tension, but with time Johann earns a degree of respect from the Courty's and Pontier's. He is not the evil monster they had expected. That doesn't alter the fact that by participating in the occupation, he is helping to further the Nazi cause with all its evil. Paulette comes to know him well, and over time they develop a close relationship. Only the taboos created by the war and occupation keep her from responding to his overtures. Paulette works for the mayor of Elne, where the Germans now make their headquarters. Speaking fluent German, she makes good use of her office next to the commandant's to access their conversations and plans, and is able to help the R sistance by funneling this information to Marcel. This is complicated by Johann's interest in her, and she is unsure how much he can be trusted. When the Germ

Jeb Grant studies for the final exam that determines if he graduates from Duke University School of Law. He receives a frantic phone call from Cristina, his ex-girlfriend whose grave he cried over eight years ago. He suspects a hoax but rushes to meet her. Angie Laudicino (a.k.a. Cristina DAlimonte, a.k.a. Marie Baldini, a.k.a. Elaine Russo) flees for her life from mobsters who want to use her as collateral in their war with her father, the leader of the mob in Miami. She needs to find a place to hide, but first, she must warn Jeb that the assassins are coming for him.

Valentina Kovalova, a cousin to Tsar Nicholas, fled Russia in 1917 after Bolsheviks slaughtered her family. She took her infant son to Germany but left his twin brother whom she thought was dead. She married a man who became a close confidant and friend of Hitler. As WWII commences, her husband commands a U-boat, and her sons fight on opposite sides. She moves in the inner circle of Nazi society while hiding Jews and occasional Allied soldiers in her home until Himmler discovers her involvement in the resistance.

Thoracic surgeon Jack Connor rushes to the emergency room in Fairfax County, Virginia, for a former army buddy, Sid McCloud, who has been shot in the chest. Jack takes him to surgery and saves his life, but someone tries again to kill Sid the next morning. Sid tells Jack about a terrorist plot to assassinate the president. Soon the terrorists succeed in killing Sid, and they frame Jack for the murder. Jack must hide from the police, the FBI, and the terrorists as he tries to clear his name and to save the president. Only Sids ex-wife, who was once a close friend, believes Jack. She helps him to hide and to search for the killers.

Seventeen-year-old Valentina Kovalova considers her Romanov blood to be a blessing until Bolsheviks kidnap her. Their leader becomes her lover and helps her to go home. He returns to his rebels without knowing she is pregnant. Her father shuns her, his cousin Tsar Nicholas abdicates, and Valentina delivers twin sons in the midst of war and revolution. Bolsheviks kills her parents and two sisters. Valentina flees to Germany with her infant son, leaving behind his twin brother whom she believes is dead. She inherits the extensive estate of her aunt and marries a handsome man from a prominent family. He becomes a confidant of Adolf Hitler. Her husband thinks the Fhrer will restore Germany to her rightful glory. Valentina recognizes him for the madman he is. At great risk to herself, she refuses to support him and hides a Jewish girl in her home.

This distinctive historical and archaeological guidebook to France introduces the reader and traveller to the palpable remains of past cultures that shaped the development of the modern country. This book can be used as a field manual to readily find and explore France's ancient heritage or as a reference for those who cannot visit the sites but are interested in the legacy of the past.