Alain-Fournier in Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne, Meuse (55)

The lines of crosses of the World War I dead in the area, including that of the writer Alain-Fournier, viewed from the church in Saint-Rémy-de-Calonne.

Alain-Fournier in La Tranchée de Calonne, Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne, Meuse (55)

A local newspaper article reports that in 1991, in the woods of Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne, following long searches led by Michel Algrain of Montlivault and Claude Regnault, with the help of such locals as Jean Louis from Lacroix-sur-Meuse, Roger Margerard from Mesnils-sous-les-côtes and DRAC (Directeurs régionaux des affaires culturelles) archaeologists, the remains of bodies from World War I were found. One of those remains was of Henri-Alban Fournier, much better known simply as Alain-Fournier (1886-1914), whose only novel was the immensely internationally successful novel of adolescent love and loss, Le Grand Meaulnes.

The memorial to Alain-Fournier and the men killed with him.

The monument itself is very impressive, having involved a large amount of time and money, but is not easy to locate, and you need to go a long way along the Tranchée de Calonne to find it. 

Some have called the central object 'La Pyramide' after the entrance to the Louvre.

There are a few reflections here, but Alain-Fournier's monument can be clearly seen.

Henri-Patrick Stein, in his nearby atelier in Mouilly, sculpted this superb monument.

Representations of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes and his képi.

It would probably have taken us much longer to find the memorial without the help of local historian Roger Margerard (mentioned above and pictured immediately above), who even added information when we got to the village church in Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne and (on his way home) added a word of local history when I'd photographed Maurice Genevoix's statue in Les Éparges. Many thanks, Roger, et ouais, on se demande quand ils vont déboucher le tunnel après toutes ces conneries !

Alain-Fournier in La Chapelle-d'Aiguillon, Cher (18)

The small museum in La Chapelle-d'Aiguillon, Cher, is not where Alain-Fournier was born. Jacques Rivière (1886–1935) was a director of La Nouvelle Revue française from 1919 until his death, and also a friend of Alain-Fournier, with whom he exchanged many letters and became his brother-in-law.

Alain-Fournier in Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, Cher (18)

Alain-Fournier (1886–1914) was born Henri-Alban Fournier at La Chapelle-d'Aiguillon (Cher), and is of course best known as the creator of his only novel Le Grand Meaunes, which for many years, as a frequently set school text book, remains in many people's memories and hearts. Moved to the school in Épinay-le-Fleuriel in 1891, Fournier's teacher father taught him here between 1891 and 1898, and as the above plaque states, the character 'Le Grand Meaunes' was born here. The school was also the family home.

A broad view of the front elevation, with the well in the foreground.

The school was an important building in local villages, and here (as elsewhere) part of it doubled as the Mairie, or town hall.

Albanie Fournier, Henri's mother, taught the infants' section (with some initial controversy).

The junior class, where Henri's father taught pupils aged from nine to thirteen.

The kitchen at the foot of the staircase.

The family dining room.

The red drawing room, to which Albanie would often retire.

The bedroom where Henri's parents slept.

The attic, in effect the place where Le Grand Meaunes was created.

The rear elevation, which looks out onto a large lawn.

Er, I'll just use the polite expression 'toilettes à la turque'.

Alain-Fournier: Le Grand Meaulnes (1913)

Alain-Fournier's only novel Le Grand Meaulnes was a relatively short time ago voted sixth most favourite book in a survey of readers on La Grande Librairie. Why? Because it's a great novel? I can't believe that, interesting as it most certainly is. André Gide thought it overly long, its first one hundred pages being the most interesting, and I have to agree. But then, in a list with Saint Exupéry's Le Petit Prince at the top, and Camus's (surely hugely overrated) L'Étranger in second position, what should we expect?

Le Petit Prince and L'Étranger, even Le Grand Meaulnes, are fascinating books, but surely in no way represent the greatest in French literature: so what's the problem? Surely it lies in the 'reading' public in general,  very much in the 'on dit' as opposed to the non-dit? How many people have re-read these books after childhood and adolescence, for how many have these been almost the only read books (with possibly the likes of Marc Levy and Guillaume Musso being the only exceptions?)

OK I'm being pessimistic, even insulting perhaps, but what has an adult to learn from reading Le Grand Meaunles? It's about childhood, or rather the gap between childhood, adolescence versus adulthood,* seen through the eyes mainly of the fifteen-year-old narrator François Seurel, who lives with his father and mother, M. Seurel and Millie, who are both school teachers living next to the school in Saint Agathe (in reality Épineuil-le-Fleuriel). The appearance of the seventeen-year-old Augustin Meaunles subverts the other pupils, especially of course the narrator, who shares a room with him.

By chance, on losing his 'borrowed' horse and cart, Meaunles stumbles on the domaine mystérieux, which seems to be run by children having a celebration for Frantz de Galais's (aborted) engagement to Valentine (a beautiful girl based on Alain-Fournier's meeting with Yvonne de Quiévrecourt in 1905). That is when Meaunles falls in love with Frantz's sister Yvonne de Galais, whom he will later marry, have a child by, and er...

There's a certain playfulness with the names: Saint Agathe is a real chapelle in the nearby village of, er, Meaunles, La Ferté-d'Angillon recalls La Chapelle d'Anguillon where Alain-Fournier was born, Vieux-Nançay obviously represents Nançay, etc. But one of the great works of French literature? One of the best remembered, yes.

*Does it really need to be said that later authors such as Alexandre Vialatte and Amélie Nothomb later ploughed a similar theme of puberty being the Fall?

Alain-Fournier, 14e arrondissement, Paris

'ICI

ALAIN-FOURNIER

1886 – 1914

A ÉCRIT LE GRAND MEAULNES

AVANT DE DISPARAÎTRE SUR LES-HAUTS-DE-MEUSE

LE 22 SEPTEMBRE 1914

"Je cherche quelque chose de plus mystérieuse encore"'

2 rue Cassini, where Alain-Fournier wrote Le Grand Meaulnes (1913), the only novel he completed before being killed in World War I at the age of twenty-eight. The novel remains one of the most popular ever written in French literature, and only just managed to miss the Goncourt.