Villa Delphina

Jean Francois and Annie run their up market bed and breakfast from this villa. The rooms have original Belle Époque furnishings. The villa was commandeered during the Second World War by the Wehrmacht responsible for customs arrangements and the border. There was a hotel in the village owned by a Madame White who was married to an Englishman. The Commandant turned a blind eye to her activities of helping English airmen and Jews cross the border and, in return, Madame White helped him to turn himself in to the Americans at the end of the war and not the Spanish resistance who would almost certainly have executed him. Jean Francois is gathering more historical information and I have some which I acquired from an English friend who camped in the hotel grounds after the war and who met Madame White when she was an old lady. She recounted details to him which he then recorded. She told him of a party they organised attended by two English airmen, the commandant and herself! He advised her how to deal with the Gestapo. There is a lot of fascinating local history concerning the war, but, even now, many locals do not like to talk about the war as family loyalties were often divided at the time and the wounds have taken a long time to heal