SHE has just celebrated her 105th birthday, she is a heroine of the French Resistance, and she has a boyfriend 26 years her junior.

There are not many centenarians like Andree Peel, who lives at Lampton House Residential Home in Long Ashton.

Andree was known as Agent Rose during World War 2, risking her life for the French Resistance, helping British and American pilots to escape from occupied Europe. She also survived the horrors of two concentration camps.

On her birthday last Wednesday, fellow resident Brian Westaway, 79, sat next to Andree as she was surrounded by friends and family.

Mr Westaway said: "I think she's wonderful. I gave her a tiger toy as a present."

Celebrating with a cake decorated with the French flag, Andree sang La Marseillaise.

In French, she told her visitors, who included her niece Marie Andree, 59, who travelled from Toulouse with her husband Maurice: "I feel happy that everyone is here for me today."

Her niece said: "She is extraordinary. I come to Long Ashton about four times a year, and when she came to France she was always at home with us.

"She never had children because she was 46 when she married her husband, who was 25. It must have been love."

She added: "Brian is her boyfriend here. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a wedding?"

Wearing a flowery blue skirt, a head scarf, and her 11 war medals displayed on her blouse, Mrs Peel sang, blew kisses to the many photographers who gathered for the occasion, and sipped a glass of red wine, French of course.

She occasional stroked her boyfriend's hand, and when she saw the specially made cake bearing the French flag, she said: "My France, my France", before wiping a tear away from her cheek.

Andree, whose husband John, an Englishman, died a number of years ago, saved the lives of more than 100 servicemen shot down over France, was put in a concentration camp and cheated death at least three times, once when she faced a Nazi firing squad.

She received France's highest award for bravery, the Légion d'Honneur, by her own brother, four-star General Maurice Virot.

Among her other decorations are the War Cross with palm, the War Cross with purple star, the American Medal of Freedom, the Medal of the Resistance and the Liberation Cross.

Her experiences inspired her autobiography Miracles Do Happen as well as a film made by North Somerset filmmaker William Ennals.