Celestine

by Gillian Tindall

  (Charbonnier, then a young man in the early days of his career, is a familiar figure. Dédolin the clog-maker was the great-grandfather of Madame Démeure, she who kept the grocery shop till the 1980s. His son and one of his grandsons were to follow the same calling: the dynasty is still remembered in the village. So the tapestry picture of a clog-maker’s workshop, painstakingly stitched as an anniversary present by a daughter-in-law, which hangs today in Madame Démeure’s main room, commemorates not only her late husband Maxime’s trade but her own family tradition also. Today, a one-time clog workshop in Chassignolles is occupied by a foster son of hers, a young man whose lost family origins lie in eastern Europe but who has taken on the mantle of village carpenter.)

  The later pages of Paul Pouradier-Dutheil’s memoir, which was written largely in 1879, when he was a homesick young military officer on a foreign posting, seem to be addressed to the girl who was later to become his wife. Describing the egalitarian nature of life in La Châtre, where the young workmen with whom he had played as a boy at the same school were still greeting him on his visits home as an old and intimate friend, he wrote:

  You will probably be amazed, amie, at this way of life, which is that of a small town which has, up to now, lived much cut off from the world on account of its lack of communications: there is no railway line for a full ten leagues all round. Indeed, I think that when there’s hardly a stage-coach or a coachman left in the world the La Châtre tackle will still be running … A town that has its stage-coach can retain its old, simple manners and that genuine brotherliness of which I spoke just now. Sadly, these pleasant things are disappearing with the passing years. I admit that at moments, and in certain circumstances, I have something of a horror of Progress. Of course I am impressed and made happy by scientific developments. I love taking my ease in a fine compartiment in an express train that slices through distance [three lines vigorously scratched out here – perhaps as being of too intimate a nature for public consumption?] … But, on the other hand, without being able to explain why, I dread the disappearance of my old stager from Châteauroux to La Châtre, my Grand Voiture. I can’t imagine arriving home any other way than perched on its top next to———or———[two named coachmen]. How will I manage when I can no longer ask them, as we trundle along, to fill me in on recent deaths, marriages, births and scandals – when I won’t have a charioteer to regale me with all the gossip, interspersed with encouragements to the horses, cracks of the whip and special manoeuvres each time we go down a hill? I shall have a lump in my throat the day that I arrive at La Châtre by railway train without having seen, as one does from the coach, the whole of the beautiful Black Valley spread out below with its villages, its church towers, the river and the blue distance. I pity with all my heart the generations of Berrichons who will never experience the vision of the sunrise as they reach the heights of Corlay.

  The railway was at last making its way to La Châtre as Dutheil wrote; the station opened three years later. To George Sand, born fifty years earlier than Dutheil, the stage-coach itself and the road it ran on represented modernity and progress compared with the unmapped heathlands of her own childhood. Now in turn the railway line, winding along the valley of the Indre from one village to another, has become part of that lost country of the past. Dutheil himself was, in the fullness of time, to help introduce the first telephone to Chassignolles and one of the first cars.

  Bibliography

  While it would be impossible for me to list every book that has, over the years, formed part of my reading on the subject of central France and her recent history, the following is a list of works which I know to have contributed directly to the writing of Célestine.

  Published works

  Alain-Fournier, Henri, Le Grand Meaulnes, Paris, 1913

  Ardoun-Dumazet, Voyage en France (No. 26 in series), Paris, 1901

  Audebert, B. and Tournaire, J., 1900, La Châtre et la Vallée Noire, Editions Souny, Limoges, 1985

  Balzac, Honoré de, L’Illustre Gaudissart (1833), Le Curé du Village (1839), La Rabouilleuse (1841), Les Paysans (1844)

  Baroli, Marc, La Vie Quotidienne en Berry au Temps de George Sand, Hachette, 1982

  Berducat, Jeanine, La craie pour l’ecrire (1989), Léonie, femme de la terre (1992), François, le maçon (1993), Octave, le déraciné (1994). All published by Editions La Bouinotte, Châteauroux

  Bernard, Daniel, La Fin des Loups dans le Bas Berry: histoire et traditions populaires, privately printed in Châteauroux, 1977

  ——— Itinérants ambulants dans l’Indre au XIX siècle, Extract No. 11 from ‘Le Bulletin du Group d’Histoire et d’Archéologie de Buzancais’, 1979

  ——— Hier en Berry: les Habits du Peuple des Campagnes, privately printed in Valençay with the assistance of La Guérouée de Gatines, 1985

  ——— Coureurs et Gens D’Étranger en Berry, privately printed, 1984

  ——— Le Berry de George Sand, Editions Gyss, Châteauroux, 1989

  ——— Paysans du Berry dans la France ancienne: le vie des campagnes berrichonnes, Editions Horvath, Roanne, 1982

  Braudel, Fernand, L’Identité de la France, Flammarion, Vol I, 1986; Vol II, 1988; Vol III (not completed) 1990

  Bury, J. P. T., France 1814–1940, Methuen, 1949

  Burnand, Robert, La Vie Quotidienne en France 1870–1900, Hachette, 1943

  Chastenet, Jacques, La France de Fallières, Fayard, 1949

  Cobb, Richard, A Sense of Place, Duckworth, 1975

  ——— Promenades, Oxford University Press, 1980

  Devailly Guy (ed.), L’Histoire du Berry, Editions Privat, 1980

  Duguet, Claude-Charles, L’Histoire d’une Petite Ville qui n’a pas d’Histoire: La Châtre avant la Révolution, XVII Siècle, privately printed in La Châtre in 1896, reprinted by Res Universis, Paris, 1991

  Dyer, Colin, Population and Society in Twentieth-Century France, Hodder & Stoughton, 1978

  Faith, Nicholas, The World Railways Made, Bodley Head, 1990

  Febvre, Lucien, La Terre et L’Evolution Humaine (4 vols), Paris, 1924

  Flaubert, Gustave, Madame Bovary, 1857

  Gaultier, Jean, Histoire de la Châtre et du Berry, Éditions le Vagabond, 1982

  Guillaumin, Émile, Paysans par Eux-Mêmes and La Vie d’un Simple, Paris, 1904

  Halévy, Daniel, Visites aux Paysans du Centre (1907–1934), first volume 1907, complete edition Grasset, 1935

  Héron de Villefosse, René, Histoire des Grandes Routes de France, Librarie Perrin, 1975

  Hervier, Denis, Cafés et Cabarets en Berry de 1851 à 1914, privately printed in Châteauroux, 1980

  Hoch, Lesley Page, Paths to the City: Regional Migration in Nineteenth-Century France, Sage, California, in co-operation with the Social Science History Association, undated

  Jouhandeau, Marcel, Mémorial (6 vols), Paris, 1948

  Le Roy, Eugène, Jacquou le Croquant, Paris, 1899

  Mendras, Henri and Cole, Alistair, Social Change in Modern France: Towards a Cultural Anthropology of the Fifth Republic, Cambridge University Press, 1991

  Nadaud, Martin, Mémoires de Léonard, ancien garçon maçon, Paris, 1895

  Navarre, Emmanuel, La Châtre et son Arrondissement, privately printed, 1896

  Pagnol, Marcel, L’Eau des Collines, Paris, 1949

  Pairaux, Maurice, L’Indre au Siècle Dernier – Le Conseil Général, La Vie départmentale, privately published in Valençay, circa 1900

  Sand, George, Le Meunier d’Angibault (1845), La Mare au Diable (1846), François le Champi (1847), La Petite Fadette (1848), André (1851), Histoire de ma Vie (1879)

  Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

  Vidalenc, La Société Française de 1815 à 1848, Paris, 1773

  Vincent, Raymonde, Campagne, Paris, 1937

  Weber, Eugen, Peasants into Frenchmen: the Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914, Chatto & Windus, 1977

  ——— France, Fin de Siècle, Harvard, 1986

  ——�
�� My France, Politics, Culture and Myth, Harvard, 1991

  Young, Arthur, Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789. Republished by Cambridge University Press, 1950

  Zeldin, Théodore, Histoire des Passions Françaises (5 vols), Éditions du Seuil, 1980–81

  ——— Les Français, Fayard, 1984

  Zola, Émile, Au Bonheur des Dames (1883), La Terre (1887)

  In addition, I have made general use of the two excellent periodic reviews that are published in the Berry, La Bouinotte (Châteauroux and Le Blanc) and Berry Magazine (Bourges).

  I have also made extensive use of various newspapers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century (referred to in the text), which are today kept either in the Bibliothèque Municipale in La Châtre (my thanks to the staff) or in the Departmental Archives of the Indre, in Châteauroux.

  Unpublished sources

  Baucheron, Hypolite, Recherches Sur la ville de la Châtre et sur quelques localités environnantes, manuscript held in the Departmental Archives of the Indre.

  Le citoyen d’Alphonse (Préfet de l’Indre), Portrait du Berrichon de l’Indre en 1803, printed extracts from a Report made by the Préfet, held in the Departmental Archives

  In this Archive I have also made extensive use of nineteenth-century Census records, certain judicial records of Court cases, certain military records, land registry records (those of the Service des Cadastres) and maps. My gratitude to all those members of staff who patiently found and carried heavy volumes for me and allowed me to keep several of them on my desk at once.

  I am also indebted to the staffs of the Historical Service of the French Ministry of Defence, and of the Research Service of the Archives of France, who kindly provided me with records relating to the obscure lives of Auguste Chaumette and Antoine Pirot.

  My warm thanks also to the Secretary of the Mairie in Chassignolles, who, as custodian of the Civil Registers and the Municipal Registers, was generous with her time and her interest.

  I have also, through the kindness of Jacques Pissavy-Yvernault, been privileged to consult manuscript Notes on the Pissavy-Yvernault family, compiled in the 1950s by Henry Fougère, also a manuscript entitled Souvenirs Laissés par Madame Louis Yvernault sur la Mort de sa Fille from the same obliging source. Also, thanks to the present Mayor, the manuscript family tree of the Pirots.

  A further manuscript, Souvenirs d’Enfance, written by Paul Pouradier-Dutheil circa 1880, only came my way once this book was going to press, but happily I have been able to include it in the present edition (see Afterword). My thanks to his descendents, especially to his grandson, Etienne Triat.

  My thanks also to those readers of the British hardback edition who have indicated various minor misprints and errors, or apparent errors, especially in the transcription of French words. Many of these have been rectified in the present edition. Others, however, have been allowed to stand because they are not my errors or oddities but those of the original register-keepers, letter-writers, etc., for which correction is inappropriate.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Adolphine see pictures by Adolphine

  agricultural development

  Alain-Fournier, Henri

  alambic

  Algeria, French settlement of

  Allorent (schoolmaster)

  André (by Sand)

  Angibault, mill see Meunier d’Angibault, Le

  animals, farm

  Apaire, Jean; family

  Argenton

  Atlantic coast: manufacture on; ships leaving from; trips to

  Aussourd, André; Jeanne; Jean-Baptiste; Jean; other family members

  baking

  Balzac, Honoré de

  begging

  Béjauds, Les

  Bernardet, Georges; his grandfather; tales of past; way of speaking; views on young; childhood; attitude to land; family of; dancing; attitude to dormice; death

  Bernardet, Madame

  Berry (province of): history; landscape; superstitions; attitudes to education; hunger in; after the Revolution; weddings in; call-up in; attitude to land; aversion to change; industries in; illness in; tourism in; wine growing in; emigration from

  Berry, Lower (province of): lack of roads; patois; effect of railways on; buses in

  Berthenoux, La

  birthrates: in Chassignolles; in France; see also population

  blacksmiths

  Bonnin family; Denise; Georges; Georgette; René

  Bourges; Zénaïde at school in

  Braudel, Fernand

  Briantes

  butcher’s meat

  Buzançais

  cafés in Chassignolles; see also inns, village

  Caillaud, Madame

  Calvet, Suzanne

  carrier

  cars

  cat footstool

  Cavalcades

  Célestine: working footstool; letters to; contemporary of Bernardet’s grandfather; serving in inn; period of her birth; life experience; adulthood in village; birth listed in Register; birth; dress; Chapters 9 and 10; marriage; birth of son; relations with brothers; taking on Chassignolles inn; returning to Chassignolles; in later life; at fairs; old age; death

  cemetery in Chassignolles: description of; laying out of; old cemetery

  Census records

  Champagne Berrichon

  chanvreurs

  Charbonnier family; Jacques/Auguste (schoolmaster); Marguerite (wife of Pirot)

  Chartier, Catherine (wife of Pagnard)

  Chartier, François

  Châteauroux: as religious centre; in the Hundred Years War; manufacture in; Célestine’s death there; Archives in; journey from La Châtre; effects of railway on; essential rurality of; General Bertrand in; charity office in; station; soldiers going to; Calvets in; telephone line; Célestine’s death there

  Chatillon-sur-Indre

  Châtre, La: lawyer in; in Hundred Years War; description of; superstitions; roads to; attitudes to Republicanism; in 1870; rural nature of; business in; in George Sand’s works; demonstrating against Sand; mansions; in Balzac’s works; writing bureaux; cafés; Law Court; tanneries; Pissavy family in; market; mayor of; floods in; trouble in; effects of railway on; war memorial; library; hiring fairs; Municipal Registers of; Chaumettes there; soldiers there; Romans there; Yvernaults there; Célestine there; gas; water; telephone; poverty in; walking from

  Chaumette, Anne (née Laurent): death; marriage; Célestine’s birth; inn-keeping; mentioned in letters; Auguste’s birth; Ursin’s birth; her father

  Chaumette, Auguste

  Chaumette family: vault; early name in Minutes; in Records; poverty among; as innkeepers; see also inn, Chaumette; other property; language; neighbours; descendants

  Chaumette, Felissé

  Chaumette, François: birth; occupations; starting inn; literacy; fathering son; owning land; dress

  Chaumette, Silvain

  Chaumette, Silvain-Bazille

  Chaumette, Silvain-Germain: on grave; birth; prosperity; marriage; literacy; becomes Secretary; childhood; opens inn; dress; personality; death; birth of Auguste; father of Ursin

  Chaumette, Pierre

  Chaumette, Ursin

  Chausée, Jean; see also inns, village

  Cher, Department; river

  Chezaubernard, Monsieur

  Choppy, Madame

  church, in Chassignolles; fortifications of; in use after Revolution; close to inn; repairs to; land round; attendance at

  Church, The Catholic

  Christianity

  Clemenceau

  clog-making

  Cluis

  coaches

  commercial travellers

  Communism

  Council meetings; records of; Minutes, keepers of; where held; views
on railways; views on electricity

  court-yard house

  Creuse, Department; river

  Crevant

  crimes

  Crozon-sur-Vauvre

  dancing

  de Champdavid (mayor)

  Démeure, Madame

  Démeure, Maxime

  Domaine, The; rebuilding; land belonging to; lavoir belonging to

  Dorian, Jean

  dress

  Duteil family

  Echo de l’Indre (-du Berry)

  education: lacking; new Ministry of; Guizot Law; schoolmaster; first school in Chassignolles; number of schools; development of; modern school; effects on France; girls’ schools; school in Crozon; secular state; building of new school; end of schooling; walking to school

  emigration to the city

  England (Great Britain); Queen Victoria

  English; influence

  fairs

  famine

  Ferry, Jules

  First World War (Great War); uniforms of; beginning; loss of men; effects of; memorial; survivors; experience of

  Flaubert, Gustave

  Flets, Le

  forges (iron industry)

  food

  François le Champi

  Franco-Prussian war

  foundlings

  furniture

  garde-champêtre

  Germany

  Gold standard

  Gonnin family

  grocery business

  Guéret

  Guillaumin, Émile

  Guyot family; house

  Halévy, Daniel

  house, ours

  Hundred Years War

  Indre, Department; railway in; schools in

  Indre, river; in La Châtre; in Châteauroux

  inn, Chaumette; stone staircase; meetings held there; drinking in; opening; position of; wine for; Célestine to take over; Célestine in charge; in decline

  inns, village; Aussir inn (earlier Chausée); Chauvet inn see also Chaumette inn; Crozon inn; Yvernault inn (later Calvet)