An insightful and evocative glimpse of France during the "phony war" between September 1, 1939 and May 1940. As They Were offers an insightful and evocative glimpse of France during the "phony war" period between the September 1, 1939 German invasion of Poland and the Nazi attack on the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in May 1940. A. Peter Dewey, a young reporter for the Chicago Daily News, deftly chronicled the daily routines of life in Paris as its citizens, suspended between the world that they knew and an inevitable war ahead, tried to maintain the equilibrium of the French capital. Dewey spoke fluent French and considered the country the home of his heart: his parents had purchased the abandoned Abbaye de Sainte-Marie on the coast of Normandy in 1931 and restored it; the abbey was seized by the Nazis during the war and was later reclaimed by the family.