Paris 2015: Antoine Blondin, Cimetière du Père-Lachaise #5

'Antoine Blondin
1922 – 1991'

Antoine Blondin was the son of the French female poet Germaine Blondin (1887–1965) and also wrote under the pseudonym Tenorio and was associated with the Hussards. His stint under occupied France between 1943 and 1944 with the Service du travail obligatoire (STO), in an Austrian synthetic rubber factory, inspired his first novel L'Europe buissonnière (1949), which won the prix des Deux Magots and gained the attention of Marcel Aymé and Roger Nimier. Other noted novels of Blondin's include Les Enfants du bon Dieu (1952), L'Humeur vagabonde (1955) and Un singe en hiver (1959). His drunken exploits particularly around the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area were fondly remembered. The novel Monsieur Jadis ou l'École du soir (1970) is autobiographical.