The Imaginary Line

If this looks like a Disney ride, that's okay. The whole Maginot project involved a lot of Imagineering.

The Maginot Line is closed on Mondays. Except for us, because we're special. That's what we were told by our escort anyway.
Sure enough, because of a warm long-standing relationship, the manager was glad to briefly open the gates today to show us what's left of this gargantuan folly built in the years between the World Wars, by a war-weary nation seeking to improve on trench warfare with an impenetrable industrial-strength high-tech border wall to replace the ditches and open sewers of the previous war. It was very popular with the people and Monsieur Maginot.

Ammunition entrance

Our party penetrated the mountain fortress on a narrow-gauge rail road, to journey through a maze of tunnels, meticulously laid out with every possible war time scenario planned for, except for one no one thought of: The Germans would simply bypass it all and invade France through neutral Belgium -- demonstrating for all time the futility of building a huge wall to keep out the neighbors.
The Disneyesque experience inside, not unlike riding through the Small World, seemed ironic, since the protection afforded by this monstrosity was only an illusion of purpose.
We emerged, chilled by the dank air and somewhat depressed by the incompetence and arrogance of French leadership. The conscripted men stationed there were sent to German prisoner of war camps for the duration of the war through the same deal that brokered 75,000 French Jews to the Nazis.

We were in Fort du Simserhof. Most everything else has been dismantled.