She was now travelling as a courier between Paris and Orthez, as well as down to Marseilles. The latter route was becoming increasingly important as new agents were drawn into the Orion network in northern France. Sometimes Andrée received dictated notes (in code of course) via telephone and sometimes they were given to her in note form. Once in Marseilles, ‘the post’ was taken by the sailors of the Société Hôtelière de Ravitaillement Maritime (a private company that operated in a similar fashion to the Merchant Navy’s food supply ships) or by couriers of the Banque Nationale de Commerce et d’Industrie to Algeria. As day-to-day life in occupied France became increasingly depressing and difficult, Andrée was intrigued when she returned home one evening from a music recital at the German Institute to find a letter addressed to her from her Belgian uncle, advising her that one of his friends would be arriving in Paris and would be inviting her out to dinner. She had not eaten a good meal since Christmas and Andrée’s love of good food was legendary, so she was very excited at the thought of dinner at Prunier’s, but curious as to why a friend of her uncle would invite her to join him in one of the city’s best restaurants.
