On the Lamartine road
Poet and novelist, Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1872) remains one of the great figures of romanticism. He was also a political figure, as he participated in the 1848 Revolution and proclaimed the Second Republic. Born in Macon, this literary legend spent his childhood in Milly. In 1833, he was elected deputy, switched from royalism to republicanism before failing in the presidential election of 1848. Indebted, he sold his estate in Milly and continued his writing work, signing in particular Le Tailleur de pierre de Saint-Point and the poem "La Vigne et la Maison". He died 12 years later, and was laid to rest in the family vault in the cemetery along the grounds of the château de Saint-Point, where he had lived since 1820. The Saône-et-Loire region pays tribute to him with a "Route Lamartine". A route of about sixty kilometers starting from Mâcon where you can discover the new Lamartine space created in 2019 at the Musée des Ursulines. In Prissé we will visit "La Solitude de Lamartine" (or Pavillon des Girondins), located in the middle of the vineyards of his castle of Monceau. It is there that he wrote a part of the history of the Girondins. To see also, his house of Milly-Lamartine. Built in 1705 by his great-grandfather (to serve as a "vendangeoir" for the vineyard), it is there that Alphonse lived all his youth, and it is there that inspired some of his most beautiful poems. Finally, don't forget his castle of Saint-Point.
Colette and Jean d'Ormesson marked Puisaye
In Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, there's not a street, restaurant or store that doesn't honor, in one way or another, the village's great citizen, the writer Colette (1873-1954), whose 150th birthday was celebrated in 2023. The author of Claudine and Le Blé en herbe grew up here. Even if Colette changed the names of her villages and characters in her novels, all her work has Puisaye at its heart. Created on the initiative of her daughter, the Musée Colette invites visitors to discover her life and work. Nearby, the house where she was born has been reconstructed from her own writings and archival documents. Festivals, readings and conferences are held here all year round. To fully follow in her footsteps, you can also wander around the vast Domaine de Boutissaint, where she liked to take refuge. And don't forget the Colette trail, opened in 1993 by students from the Colette secondary school in Saint-Sauveur, where everything is a reminder of her stories!
Later, when she left Paris to stay in Puisaye, Colette could have met another of our future great writers: in the neighboring village of Saint-Fargeau, when he was still a child, Jean d'Ormesson (1925-2017) spent all his vacations at the château, the Lepeletier-de Saint-Fargeau family estate from which his mother descended. In the 1970s, on television, he confided: "This place has played an enormous role in my life. The only place I've ever had any connection with is this one. There's a part of me that is and always will be attached to this place". Sold in 1968, d'Ormesson experienced this separation as a heartbreak. "My mother was born there. His mother was born and died there. His grandmother was born and died there. And it goes all the way back to the 18th century. In 1974, the writer made the château the central character of his novel Au plaisir de Dieu. A book that was adapted for television in a popular soap opera filmed on location!
Jules Renard : Carrot hair is Nivernais !
If Jules Renard (1864-1910) was born in Mayenne, his father François Renard was born in Chitry-les-Mines (Nièvre) where the family returned to settle in 1866, when Jules was only 2 years old. François was even elected mayor of the village, preceding his son by a few decades. Jules' schooling took place in Nevers, and his career led him to Paris. But he will keep all his life deep attachments to Chitry. In his famous Poil de carotte, he talks about a house where the young boy lives. Located at the beginning of the Gallo-Roman road, it still exists. As for the "little railway" that he mentions in his famous Diary, it is one of the former lines of the "Tacot du Morvan", Nevers-Corbigny. In Chitry, one can pay homage to his grave in the form of an open book.
Auxerre and Joigny celebrate Restif de la Bretonne, Marie Noël and Marcel Aymé
Marcel Aymé, author of Contes du chat perché, La Vouivre and Passe Muraille, was born in 1902 at 76 rue Jacques-d'Auxerre, Joigny. The family had moved there in 1897. In truth, they soon left Joigny, but Marcel Aymé and his 5 brothers and sisters returned regularly. Marcel even attended the town's secondary school, now the Conservatoire. Although his birthplace cannot be visited, a plaque celebrates him. Born in 1734 in Sacy, near Vermenton, Nicolas Restif de La Bretonne was the son of a ploughman. After working as a typesetter in Auxerre and Dijon, he finally settled in Paris in 1761. His works range from the libertine novel L'anti-Justine ou les délices de l'amour to historical novels and biographical works such as La Vie de mon père. Today, streets bear his name in Courgis, Dijon, Sacy, Vermenton and Auxerre, where a plaque stands in place of the printing works where he worked. Adjacent to the Tour de l'Horloge, it is now the headquarters of the Tourist Office. A few metres away, a statue also celebrates him. Another great local figure is Marie Noël (1883-1967). The poetess was better known for her traditional songs than for her darker, absolutely magnificent writings. Profoundly Catholic, and even devout, a beatification process was opened in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of her death. Marie Noël bequeathed her work and her apartment (unchanged) to the Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l'Yonne. Since the end of 2019, her house (at 1, rue Marie-Noël) has been designated a "Maison des illustres". A statue honors him in front of the town hall.
Dijon's Henri Vincenot celebrated Burgundy
But if there is a writer who has deeply marked the region, even revealing himself as a true ambassador of its traditions and history, it is the Dijon-born Henri Vincenot (1912-1985). Written in a truculent language, his two most famous novels (the autobiographical La Billebaude and Le Pape des escargots) are impregnated with the Burgundian landscapes, and its accents. At the end of his life, he chose to settle in the village where he liked to spend his vacations, in Commarin where his grandparents lived. But he spent his entire life rebuilding a ruined hamlet discovered by chance during a hunting trip with his grandfather (La Peurrie). It is there, in this place that he bought, that he rests from now on.
