Françoise Grange, Amplepuis (69), Rhône (69)

This is one I left for later: the exhibition 'Née Fille' in the Musée Barthélémy Thimonnier by the feminist artist Françoise Grange. In it, she says that she has tried to understand what could lead a torturer to accomplish such acts of cruelty. The philosophy of Hannah Arendt features strongly here, and after eliminating 'psychopathic misogynists', Grange uses Arendt's expression 'absence of thought', which is absence of reflection, absence of responsibility, which can lead to an ideology: that of asking no questions, obeying rules along the lines of 'That's what we've always done', or 'It's the will of God', or the totalitarian 'You don't question the orders of those in power'. In this way, a person is no longer responsible for acts of obscenity, only loyal to his religion, his social group or his rulers. This legitimises appalling acts, the will of those in power is accomplished without moral conscience, job done. This inevitably causes us to consider Arendt's expression 'The banality of evil', the normalisation of obscenity to women, such as the traditions of clitoral excision and infibulation (the sewing up of the vulval lips); the enforced marriage of  young girls; the shutting up of widows in darkened places; the reduction of women to their reproductive function; the stoning of victims of rape; the allowing of temporary marriages (just a form of prostitution); women being forced to hide their bodies and being denied access to education; the list is endless.

Men grow up still believing in ancient customs: if they didn't they'd be cutting themselves off from their society. What they do is in 'good faith', they remain persuaded that women are inferior, witches or prostitutes, unworthy of respect. Women are to be feared, so it is necessary to tame them, dominate them, subject them to male wishes and punish them. 'Née Fille' is an extremely powerful argument in favour of the freedom of women, of their resistance to men's barbarities, and is a deeply moving experience, surely especially today when women in Afghanistan are returning to a horrific life which existed centuries ago?

The exhibits are accompanied by poems, but if it would be inappropriate for me to translate them. Suffice to say that we (yes, men too!) should all be feminists now. If not, there's no hope.

Le Tata sénégalais in Chasselay (69), Rhône (69)

Le Tata sénégalais just outside Chasselay, specifically at Vide-sac, is a cemetery containing the remains of 188 Senegalese infantrymen, six north African infantrymen and two soldiers from the Foreign Legion. They were massacred by the Nazis in June 1940. The whole cemetery is in red ochre. The name tata refers to a holy enclosure, the cemetery itself has symbols alluding to Christianity and Islam, and the wooden gates remember traditional African religions. It was built in 1942 and underwent no damage during the Occupation.

Barthélémy Thimonnier, Amplepuis (69), Rhône (69)

Barthélemy Thimonnier (1793-1857) was born in L'Arbresle (Rhône) and died in Amplepuis (Rhône), a village to which his parents moved when he was very young. When he left his parents he first moved to Panissières as a tailor, and then to a suburb in Saint-Étienne. It was in working for his customers that he dreamed of mechanising the sewing process, and in fulfilling his dream he became the first creator of the working sewing machine. He signed the patent in partnership with Auguste Ferrand, a mining engineer, in 1830 with a view to making uniforms for the army. However, his workshop was destroyed by workers fearing that they would lose their livelihood due to mechanisation. Thimmonnier returned to Amplepuis to re-take up work as a tailor, although he came up with three more patents, each improving on his original design. But in spite of winning prizes at exhibitions and receiving praise from the press, sales were not forthcoming. His life ended in poverty and he was initially buried in a paupers' grave.

However, the name Thimonnier on sewing machines contiinued one way or another until as late as 1983. Le Musée Barthélémy Thimonnier in Amplepuis remembers the man which with a large number of sewing machines from all over the world.

The first sewing machine, by Thimonnier, 1829 (?).

The Thimonnier & Cie machine Pic-Up, undated.

Neither Étienne Thimonnier, Barthélémy's son, not any successors, produced sewing machines. Those under the tradename Thimonnier were mainly imported from Germany, or Japan, as this Janôme Thimonnier model of about 1972.

I remember very well the Bernina model my mother had, although this, at about 1944, is much earlier.

Boîte à lire, Amplepuis (69), Rhône (69)

Boîte à lire, Amplepuis, with a number of books but I only relieved it of one: Octave Mirbeau's Le Jardin des supplices.

Claude Bernard in Saint-Julien-en-Beaujolais (69), Rhône (69)

Claude Bernard (1813-78), doctor, founder of modern physiology and epistemologist, is by far the most famous inhabitant of Saint-Julien-en-Beaujolais. His statue takes centre place in this tiny village. His museum, amazingly, is not, as far as I could see, signposted.

The impressive façade of the museum.

Bust of Claude Bernard.

Fanny Martin was married to Claude Bertrand, although it was a marriage of convenience, Bertrand receiving a large dowry from the marriage, enabling a move to Paris where he (the son of vine growers) could mix with the intelligentsia.

More interestingly, Fanny strongly disapproved of Bertrand's strong interests in vivisection. She became a founder member of the SPA (Société Protectrice des Animaux) and in time officially separated from Bernard. Her two surviving daughters, very close to Fanny, never married and devoted their lives to the interests of animals.

Later Bertrand met Marie Raffolovich, who was a great help to him, particularly in translating foreign texts. But apparently this was an unconsumated relationship, Marie being much younger than him and also being contentedly married.

No matter what my opinion of Bernard may be, this quotation of his is so true: 'C'est ce que nous pensons déjà connaître qui nous empêche souvent d'apprendre': 'It's what we think we know already which often prevents us from learning'.

Musée Gabriel Chevallier in Vaux-en-Beaujolais (69), Rhône (69)

Opposite the fresco and the pissotière is the Musée Gabriel Chevallier, a small room with a wealth of (mainly pictorial) information on the writer, including some of his drawings.

A representation of Chevallier made at an unknown date.

Chevallier in his Amilcar (1923-25).

Again, the date of this photo is unknown.

Madeleine, Chevallier's wife, at the time of the marriage in 1936.

The 1945 edition of Clochemerle, with illustrations by Albert Dubout.

Chevallier was in World War I, and drew representations of soldiers, of which this is one.

An undated self-portrait.

And another (obviously much later) undated self-portrait.

La Peur (1930) is Chevallier's first novel, about World War I. It formed the basis for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004).

Chevallier is all over Vaux, and within a few seconds of the square we encounter representations of his characters. Bernard Pivot, the ex-chair of the Goncourt panel, was born here and has a school named after him, but Chevallier reigns supreme.

Gabriel Chevallier in Vaux-en-Beaujolais (69), Rhône (69)

The writer and artist Gabriel Chevallier (1885-1969) was born in Lyon, although it was the much smaller Vaux-en-Beaujolais which inspired his greatest success, Clochemerle, which was originally published in 1934. It in turn inspired a film and a television series, and as you enter Vaux you find that it also has another name: Clochemerle, of course. Prominent in the village is a house with murals of some of a number of characters in the book: it was designed by the A. Fresco company after illustrations by Albert Dubout, which appeared in the 1945 edition of the novel. Included are a couple of lovers near the cuckolded butcher (wearing stag horns); the curé and his maid; the chemist; Chevalier and Dubout at a window; the baron and a local solicitor; the Café Torbayan drunkards celebrating the beaujolais nouveau; the village band; the punished; etc.  Also prominent in the square is a representation of the village pissotière. The mock heraldic device on the building is a rebus: it shows a bell (cloche) and two blackbirds (merles) perched on a pissotière.