Marie Cappelle in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (13)

This is one I forgot to add last month. Madame Lafarge (born Marie Cappelle in 1816) was known as 'the poisoner of Tulle' for killing her husband with arsenic in 1840. She served part of her sentence in Montpellier, and was interned in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric hospital in St-Rémy-de-Provence (where Van Gogh stayed later) for fifteen months (1851-2). Suffering with tuberculosis, she was released and died in Ussat-les-Bains (Ariège) in November 1852. There are very serious doubts as to whether she did in fact poison her husband.

Marie Cappelle was also a writer of talent and over some years wrote a series of memoirs, most published in her lifetime and a few posthumously.

Marguerite Duras in Saint Rémy-de-Provence (13)

'[D]es journées entières dans les arbres', says this shop, which must be among the very few to have named itself after a modern play: by Marguerite Duras. I've no idea what Duras would have thought of that: she may have written an article about it, although I suspect she'd have no interest whatsoever.

Marìo Mauron in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (13)

'On 5 April 1896,

one fine Easter morning,

MARÌO ROUMANILLE

(Nom de plume MARÌO MAURON)

Was born in this farm'

Charles Gounod in Saint Rémy-de-Provence (13)

Charles Gounod (1818-93) was a composer who is perhaps most well known for his operatic interpretation of Frédéric Mistral's Mireille.

Vincent Van Gogh in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (13)

In the ancient monastery Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, is a psychiatric hospital to which Van Gogh went after living for a short time in Arles, a town in which he disgraced himself so much that the inhabitants had drawn up a petition to either intern him or banish him. His stay at the hospital was from 8 May 1989 to 16 May 1990, when he left Saint-Rémy for Auvers-sur-Oise, where he killed himself two months later, on 28 July 1990. His time at Saint-Paul-de Mausole was artistically very fruitful for him, and he painted about 150 pictures there, some among his most famous, such as La Nuit étoilée (Starry Night). Parts of it are open to the public.

Rear view of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole and its impressive garden.

The cloister in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.

The garden within the cloister.

A reconstruction of the kitchen.

This is one of four representations of Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles.

The reconstruction of Van Gogh's room.

The artist had a very good view from his bedroom, which may or may not be like the present view.

A sculpture of Van Gogh by Ossip Zadkine: La lettre de Théo a Vincent'.

Gabriel Sterk's Le Voleur de tournesol, clumsily translated as The Sunflower's Thief.

American sculptor Melvin Klapholz realised this bust in 1996.

All the way along Rue Van Gogh, it is studded with these markers.

Léon Daudet in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône (13)

 The grave of the very right-wing Léon Daudet (1867–1942) – journalist and novelist and son of Alphonse Daudet – who died in Saint-Rémy.

Joseph Roumanille's grave in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (13)

Joseph Roumanille (Jousé Roumaniho in provençal) (1818–91) was born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and died in Avignon. He studied in the college in Tarascon and worked as a solicitor's clerk there from 1836 to 1839, and published his first poems in L'Écho du Rhône. He worked as a surveillant and teacher in Nyons and in the Collège Dupuy in Avignon, where one of his students was Frédéric Mistral. He was co-founder of the félibrige, and his wife Rose-Anaïs Gras (1840–1920), langue d'oc writer and translator, is among members of the family buried here.

Many thanks to Sophie Vulpian for setting us right on the geography of the grave.

HÔTEL DE TOURREL

D'ALMERAN – MAILLANE

LE 26 MAI 1863

EN CET HÔTEL

POUR LA PREMIÈRE FOIS ET

EN PRÉSENCE DE FRÉDÉRIC MISTRAL

CHARLES GOUNOD

FIT ENTENDRE

LA PARTITION SAINT-REMOISE

DE MIREILLE

An important occasion then, the reading of the first section of Mistral's most famous work: Mireille, or rather Mirèio in provençal.

My Frédéric Mistral posts:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Frédéric Mistral at Le Mas du Juge
Frédéric Mistral: Mireille
Frédéric Mistral in Maillane
Le Pavillon de la Reine Jeanne, Les Baux-de-Provence
Frédéric Mistral in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Bouches-du-Rhône
Frédéric Mistral in Saint-Giniez, Marseille
Frédéric Mistral, Marseille
Frédéric Mistral in Avignon
Frédéric Mistral in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Frédéric Mistral in Grambois
Frédéric Mistral in Saint-Michel-l'Obsevatoire
Frédéric Mistral in Pertuis

Nostradamus in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (13)

'ICI NAQUIT 14 DÉCEMBRE 1503

MICHEL DE NOSTREDAME

DIT NOSTRADAMUS

ASTROLOGUE'

It's no easy thing to photograph Nostradamus's birthplace in such a cramped street.

The plaque outside Nostradamus's birthplace states that he was the elder son of the solicitor Jaume de Nostradame and Raynières de Saint-Rémy, both of Jewish origin. His great-grandfather, Jean de Saint-Rémy, was a doctor and the town treasurer. Nostradamus grew up in a financially comfortable home and was educated to far above the average standard, learning mathematics and astromomy. He loved walking round the surrounding countryside and all his life was impressed by the countryside of the Alpilles and fascinated by the Roman history of Saint-Rémy which he regularly mentioned in his writings.

After studying at Avignon and Montpellier universities, he became a doctor of repute, experimenting with some success plant-based cures for the plague. He chose to call himself Nostradamus because of its meaning 'we give what is ours', in other words 'we pass on our knowledge'.

Above all Nostradamus was a humanist, a scientist, poet, and a friend of intellectuals. From 1566 he wrote his prophecies from Salon-de-Provence, where he established himself after his second marriage, and he received a great reputation for them. He became the protégé of Catherine de Médicis who in 1564 named him the king's doctor and advisor to the queen.

Nostradamus died in 1566, leaving a very rich work from a scientific, medicinal and literary point of view. He remains one of the most read authors in the world.

Nostradamus's well in the centre of town.

'FONTAINE ANCIENNE

LA FONT VIÈIO

ERIGÉ EN 1814

-----------------

BUSTE DE NOSTRADAMUS

PAR LIOTARD, DE LAMBESC

1859'

Detail of Nostradamus's bust on the fountain.

Nostradamus as street art.

Joseph Roumanille's Statue in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (13)

The statue of the writer Joseph Romanille (1818–91), born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Frédéric Mistral was one of his students when he taught in the Dupoy college in Avignon, and he was a co-founder of the Félibrige.

Around the base of the statue are words of Joseph Romanille in Provençal.