Boîte à lire, Évreux, Eure (27)

A staunchly secular boîte à lire in Évreux, with a strict rule: 'rappel : AUCUN LIVRE sur la religion MERCI'. It seems to be run by 'Carrément Voisins', who also advertise a poetry meeting here.

Modeste Anquetin in Évreux, Eure (27)

Modeste Anquetin (1817-1909) was a clockmaker who was born in and died in Évreux. He was the author of a number of works, some poetry, some on Vercingétorix (80-46 BC), and also La Montre carrée de Marie Touchet, who was the Countess of Entragues and mistress of Charles IX.

Jules Janin in Évreux, Eure (27)

Writer and drama critic Jules Janin (1804-1871) was born in Saint-Étienne and died in Paris.  As a journalist, he worked for a number of periodicals, such as Revue de Paris, Revue des deux Mondes, Figaro and La Quotidienne. His reputation was established with the novels L’Âne mort et la femme guillotinée (1827), La Confession (1830) and Barnave (1831). He was critic for the Journal des Débats for forty years, and became known as 'Le prince des critiques.' He was elected to Académie française in 1870, occupying Sainte-Beuve's former seat. He is buried in the Cimetière Saint-Louis in Évreux, in the family vault of his widow Adélaïde Janin-Huet (1820-1876). On her death in 1876, Adélaïde Janin-Huet left the town the wherewithal to create a monumental water fountain to be erected in a promiment place in Évreux, where it stands in front of the town hall. The names of her father and her deceased husband, as donators, were inscribed on the fountain, although I unfortunately didn't notice them.