Claude Seignolle in Sainte-Montaine, Cher (18)

On the wall of the Mairie, along with a plaque of Marguerite Audoux (see below), is a plaque dedicated to another literary figure who had lived in Sainte-Montaine – Claude Seignolle (1917–2018), who lived there from 1945 to 1959, and who found the Sologne area a rich source for gleaning many of his folkloric tales. Probably his most famous novel is the fantasy La Malvenue (1952), which went through many editions and is set in the Sologne. The UCPS (Union pour la Culture Populaire en Sologne) erected this plaque in 2006.

Marguerite Audoux, Sainte-Montaine, Cher (18)

Marguerite Audoux (née Donquichote) was a working-class novelist who was born in 1863 in Sancoins (Cher) and died in Saint-Raphaël (Var) in 1937. She and her sister Madeleine were in effect orphaned when Marquerite was three, and they were both sent to the Hôpital général de Bourges orphanage, where they spent several years. She was later sent to a farm where she worked as a shepherd in Sainte-Montaine, near Aubigny-sur-Nère. She later moved to Paris, where she became a seamstress. She went on to become the friend of various novelists, and her own autobiogaphical novel Marie-Claire (1910) was a huge success, winning the Prix Femina. A number of the furnishings, including her bed, in the Musée Marguerite Audoux (at the back of the Mairie, the former school) in Sainte-Montaine were her own.