Pétain and his ministers, although "on strike" were lodged in the requisitioned Sigmaringen castle. Pétain chose a suite that wasn't too big, as it was less cold. The rest of the enclave was lodged in schools and gymnasiums converted to dormitories, in scarce rooms in private residences or in hotels such as the or the which were mostly reserved for more distinguished guests, notably the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline, who wrote about the experience in his 1957 book Castle to Castle. Céline describes at length the Brasserie where the French gathered to follow the news of the approaching Allied armies and to talk about the latest rumors about the imminent, albeit improbable, German victory in the war.
