Paris Resistance member welcomes one of General Leclerc's liberating tankers with a glass that cheers.  While the AFP caption suggests that this is "a glass of wine", close inspection indicates that the treat is, actually, a good shot of Martell cognac.  Best regards, JR.

"Warming the cockles of the heart" - Paris, 1944.

Paris Agents de Police and a "civilian" resistant on guard, probably at the Préfecture de Police, Isle de la Cité, Paris, during the 1944 Paris Resistance uprising.  In the weeks prior to the uprising, the Communist Resistance showed considerable ingenuity in targeting the Paris Police Force for recruitment, recruiting an improbably large number of new "comrades" from the Force.  These Policiers were a valuable addition to the Paris Resistance overall, since they were at this time generally armed with pistols and, in many cases, rifles, and had access to Police arsenals containing more.  When the uprising broke out, policemen were more likely to support it than to try to put it down.  A great  number of the newly-Commie cops occupied the impressive Court of Justice complex on the Isle de la Cité, which included the forbidding stone-built Préfecture de Police.  This was a major location for the somewhat scattered and (from the Germans' viewpoint) rather half-hearted fighting that took place across Paris during the uprising.  At one point, the Préfecture was subject to attack by the Germans' menagerie of obsolete captured French tanks but, since the attackers lacked infantry support and even high-explosive ammunition, and the defenders lacked antitank weapons, this incident ended in a pretty bloodless draw.  Best regards, JR.

A fair cop - Paris, 1944.

Members of the Paris Resistance, mainly policemen (in dark uniform) appear to take cover from snipers behind a civilian motor car in front of the façade of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris.  The location is not improbable; The Isle de la Cité and contiguous Left Bank were the scene of a fair bit of fighting during the Paris uprising.  This photo is a little odd, however, as a French Army film crew appears to be in attendance.  An immediate post-Liberation reconstruction, perhaps ?  Best regards, JR.