Saturday, April 8, 2017

Camp de Milles

Bonjour tout le monde!

             As I mentioned last week, I decided to talk this week about Camp de Milles. I do not aim at getting political or anything, I am just going to briefly explain what this place is, where it is, what I learned about it, and why we are talking about it. A week or so ago me and two of my friends chose to visit this place and I thought it was a very unique and educational visit so I felt like sharing!

            Firstly, what is Camp de Milles? Camp de Milles was an internment camp that opened in September 1939 in a village called Les Milles, which is just outside of Aix. It used to be a textile factory, but now it is set up as a memorial of sorts. It is served as a museum. I found it to be unique that the museum was inside the building. It made for the experience to feel more personal and realistic.

            There are many things that I learned from Camp de Milles. Not only did they provide a lot of history of World War two, from France's perspective, but they also add something else that was new. They had an entire section of the museum, one-third of the museum, dedicated to explaining how a country goes from acceptance to genocide. Of course it was all in French so I did not understand everything, but by explaining the process that this takes, I fell it provides a "what next" aspect to a historical place.

             In my generation, we are often taught about World War two and the things that occurred, but as time goes on people forget, simply because we were not alive during the time of the war. However, by remembering the travesties that struck the world, hopefully we can learn from these past mistakes and be able to move forward in the future. You can still walk straight and look behind you, and by doing so you can move forward with the knowledge of the past in your vision.

            In conclusion, I found this place to be very educational. It provided a great historical overview of things that took place in Europe, France, and Milles. It also added a different aspect that I have not seen as much, which is the preventive piece. It added an aspect which tried to get people to think about themselves in the present day, and how we can improve us, which is something that is extremely important .

Á la semaine prochine!

The picture attached are from the hike at Mount St. Victoire as well as the Gorges du Verdon.

At the Gorges du Verdon.


Gorges du Verdon. 


Gorges du Verdon.


A view overlooking a small French town. 


On top of Mount St. Victoire. 


Views. 


An awkward pose of me on top of the mountain. 


Another view of the small city.

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