Alexis Piron, Dijon (21), Côte-d'Or (21)

 I mentioned Alexis Piron (1689-1773) a few posts ago, but was interested to see a Rue Piron (dedicated to Alexis or his great-nephew Eugène, I wondered) in Dijon. Sure enough, this is the house where the poet Alexis was born: great to see another tribute to this forgotten writer.

Léon Tolstoï and Ivan Tourgueniev, Dijon (21), Côte-d'Or (21)

Or Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev in English. So, they stayed at Hôtel de La Cloche, Dijon (now with a 'Grand' added) between 9 and 14 March 1857. I can't find a narrative behind this, but if anyone can give me a link I'd appreciate it.

Étienne-Jules Marey in Beaune (21), Côte-d'Or (21)

Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) was a doctor, physiologist and inventor who was born in Beaune and died in Paris. This monument to him in the town of his birth is very impressive, with Marey seated and a series of moving horses at the side of him. He was one of the first people to methodically study 'la machine animal', photographically recording different movements of both animals and humans: chronophotographie, as Marey termed it. Among his many other creations, he also developed the sphigmograph (the precursor to the sphigmomanometer), making a portable version.

Jean-Philippe Rameau in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

On Boulevard Georges Clemenceau, a statue of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), who was a composer and music theorist born in Dijon. He is thought of as one of the greatest musicians and is particularly noted for his opera-ballet Les Indes galantes (1735).

Alexis Piron in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

'ALEXIS PIRON

POÈTE SATIRIQUE

1689 - 1773'

Also in the Jardin de l'Arquebuse in Dijon is Piron's bust. He was a playwright as well as a poet  and a man of undoubted brillance and quick wit, although his first published work, an erotic poem written about the age of twenty – Ode à Priape (1710) – was to dog him throughout his life and prevent him from being elected to the Académie française. His self-composed, self-denigrating epitaph is rather harsh:

'Ci-gît Piron

qui ne fut rien,

Pas même académicien'.

Aloysius Bertrand in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand, or Aloysius Bertrand (1807-41) was a poet, playwright and journalist considered as the inventor of the prose poem. He is most noted as the author of Gaspard de la nuit (1842). He spent much of his life in Dijon, although he died in Paris and is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. His bust in Le Jardin de l'Arquebuse in Dijon contains a quotation from Gaspard: 'J'étais un jour assis a l'écart dans le jardin de l'Arquebuse'.

Boîte à lire in Montbard, Côte-d'Or (21)

An interesting and quite fully packed one, this.

Christine O'Loughlin in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Like a wood shaving, this Copeau de trottoir (1991) by Christine O'Loughlin, as if a shaving from the street pavement, has an unusual presence here.

Water Tower art in Montliot-et-Courcelles, Côte-d'Or (21)

It's not unusual for places to decorate their water towers, as in the States for instance, although I found this one in Montliot-et-Courcelles, Côte-d'Or (21) particularly well done, and not at all cutesy. A goldfinch with an acorn in its beak above squirrels on one side, a kid tickling a blue tits' nest on the other. Just one example among millions why the fake English government desperately clinging onto power want to prevent people from discovering France.

Antoinette Quarré in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Antoinette Suzanne Quarré (1813-47) was a working-class poet who was born in Recey-sur-Ource (Côte-d'Or) and died in Dijon. She was a linen maid in Dijon of poor health, and a story handed down tells that she learned to read from Voltaire's Zaïre. Receiving lessons from M. de Belloguet, she leaned towards poetry and published several works in verse and in prose (particularly in Le Journal des Demoiselles). An elegy on Marie d'Orléans gave her a mention in the Société des lettres et des arts de Seine-et-Oise in 1839. She sent her verses to Lamartine, who in 1838 responded by a poem, 'À une jeune fille poète', which he included in Recueillements poétiques. Encouraged by friends she published a collection of poetry in 1843, although she died of heart failure in 1847.

Gloria Friedmann in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Gloria Friedmann (born in 1950) constructed this piece, Le Compteur du temps, in 2020, in which the times of several places around the world can be seen. The message at the bottom of the sculpture states that what really counts is one's own time, that inside us at this precise moment, and that we should take advantage of it. We shouldn't forget that it's not time which passes, but us who pass in time.

Buffon in Montbard, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a naturalist, mathematician, biologist, cosmologist, philosopher and writer who influenced Lamarck and Darwin, and was called 'the Pliny of Montbard'. His Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière (1749-1804), in 44 volumes (eight posthumous) is one of the most important scientific works of the time. The Parc Buffon, which is linked to a former castle owned by the Dukes of Burgundy, was built by Buffon between 1733 and 1742. The park contains Buffon's Cabinet de travail, where he spent many hours writing his huge work.

The two towers, Aubespin and Saint-Louis, are part of the remains of the castle and date from the 14th century, although Buffon rebuilt the Tour de Saint-Louis as a summer study first and then as a laboratory and library. L’église Saint-Urse is also a vestige of the old castle, and Buffon is buried in a chapel in it.

Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton (1716-1799) was born in Montbard and was Buffon's colleague: the first fifteen volumes of L’Histoire Naturelle names Daubenton as a 'co-author'.

The museum was unfortunately closed at the time we went.

Buffon's cabinet de travail, with plaque above noting Jean-Jacques Roussean's visit here.

La Tour de l'Aubespin.

La Tour de Saint-Louis.

The monument to Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton.

L’église Saint-Urse.

And the chapel where Buffon's remains lie.

Boîtes à lire in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Three Boîtes à lire (of 49!) here in Dijon (called Boîtes à livres in both French and Braille!). Disappointingly, both the first (in a way out-of-the-way spot in the Jardin de l'Arquebuse) and the second (in the bustling Place de République) had almost no books: people collecting, or lack of interest? Who can tell, but the third had a quite a number. I was devastated that neither Gibert Joseph nor Fnac in the town had a copy of the brilliant Éric Chevillard's latest Minuit novel Monotobio, I mean, the guy lives here: very quietly, almost in secret, but everyone knows! Or not. I digress.

So, Dijon encourages reading, and to prove it this Boîte à lire is just one of the 49 in the town itself and the outskirts. OK, I'd come across one weird one which was locked up (Varennes-le-Grand) due to Covid-19, but this is the first one with a warning I'd encountered. It advises taking all precautionary measures: the wearing of gloves and the washing of hands when books are either left or taken, and to put any books taken 'in quarantine' between five and eight days. No comment.

Glyptodon in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

The glyptodon (same word in French) is no longer extant, although it was a herbivorous mammal which appeared in South America about 1.8 million years ago, and became extinct about 11,500 years ago. Its carapace consisted of thousands of bony plates, obviously important to its protection. Its head and tail also consisted of bony substances. It weighed more than a tonne and its closest existing neighbour is the armadillo.

This specimen is in fact the star of Dijon's Muséum d'histoire naturelle. It was Léonard Nodot (1802-59) who founded the museum and was its first director. Vice-admiral Dupotet had brought back 2000 skeletal fragments of the animal from South America, left them to the town of Dijon, and Nodot patiently reconstructed the glyptodon from what there was. This was at a time when very little was known of the glyptodon by naturalists and Nodot's work was to be of great help to researchers.

Éric Chevillard is much concerned with self-protection, particularly in the non-human animal kingdom (analogies, of course), and his novel Démolir Nisard | Demolishing Nisard (2006) is where I first learned of the (former) existence of the glyptodon. In this novel the narrator's hatred for Désiré Nisard slightly gives way to his appreciation of Nodot. As I say in that post:

'There is a positive to the negative, and as Nisard is 'demolished', then the narrator suggests that Léonard Nodot, the founder of the Muséum d'histoire naturelle in Dijon (where Chevillard lives) should be 'resurrected'. The narrator particularly enjoys visiting the museum to see the 'resurrection' of the prehistoric gigantic armadillo there, the glyptodon.'

Désiré Nisard in Châtillon-sur-Seine (Côte-d'Or (21))

The bronze bust of the writer and critic Désiré Nisard (1806-88) in Châtillon-sur-Seine (where he was born) is by Pech, and the medallions of his brothers Charles (a philologist, publisher and translator (1808-89)) and Auguste (an academic (1809-92)) are by Pech and Drouet. Désiré also has a street named after him, although he figures in none of the usual information by the Bureau de tourisme. (As I've not mentioned anything about Désiré, see my post on Éric Chevillard's novel Démolir Nisard!). Paradoxically, Nisard had been long forgotten until Chevillard came along.

Black Redstart, Montbard, (Côte-d'Or (21))

A slightly blurred black redstart at Montbard, close to where Buffon is buried.

Lavoirs in Pernand-Vergelesses (Côte-d'Or (21))

There are a few lavoirs in Pernand-Vergelesses, although these two particularly struck me, particularly the second, which has been renovated and turned into a lily pond with erotic fish.

Cabotte in Pernand-Vergelesses (Côte-d'Or (21))

This structure (a little miniaturised surely?) is at a roundabout in Pernand-Vergelesses, and is a reconstruction of a cabotte, a small hut for workers in vineyards to take shelter in. This particular cabotte has a small sitting area inside for a very limited number of people.

Jacques Copeau in Pernand-Vergelesses (Côte-d'Or (21))

Jacques Copeau (1879-1949) was born in Paris and died in Beaune. He is a major figure in the French intellectual and cultural world, particularly in the theatre. He was a theatre critic for several Parisian papers, and was one of the founders of La Nouvelle Revue Française in 1908, with André Gide and Jean Schlumberger. He founded Le Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in 1913, which he directed for several years. Camus said that in the history of French theatre there are two periods: before and after Copeau.

Copeau wanted to establish L'École du Vieux-Colombier in Burgundy, although financial constraints forced him to compromise to some extent. Copeau's troupe (named 'Les Copiaus') ended up in Pernand-Vergelesses, near Beaune, and the troupe even took part in argicultural work (including in he vineyards). From May 1925 Les Copiaus played Molière and plays written for them by Copeau. However, Copeau's control weakened and by June  1929 Les Copiaus had become a new troupe: La Compagnie des Quinze, which returned to Paris and put on Noé by André Obey under the direction of Michel Saint-Denis.

In conflict with the Vichy régime and the Germans, Copeau retired to Pernand-Vergelesses in 1941, where he wrote Le Théâtre populaire (1941), which influenced the ideas of Jean Vilar. Ill since several years, Copeau died in Beaune in 1949

The building where Copeau, from 1924 to 1929, installed himself and worked with his troupe, nicknamed 'Les Copiaus' (here given an 'x' instead of an 's').

Another sign on the building (with the more conventional 's') states that members of the troupe lodged with the locals in Pernand-Vergelesses, and that their names are mentioned on the houses with a logo of two doves.

Michel Saint-Denis (1897-1971), known as 'Jacques Duchesne' in World War II, was an actor and producer. He was Jacques Copeau's nephew and secrétaire général of the theatre, becoming Copeau's right-hand man. He followed Copeau to Pernand-Vergelesses in 1924,  and led La troupe des Copiaus, which in 1929 became La Compagnie des Quinze in Paris. It acquired an international dimension, spreading his uncle's ideas on the renewal of the theatre.

Jacques Copeau is buried in the small cemetery in Pernand-Vergelesses.

At the top of his stone is the symbol of two doves.

Boîte à lire in Pernand-Vergelesses (Côte-d'Or (21))

This is a superb Boîte à lire in Pernand-Vergelesses, imaginatively constructed out of half barrels. No Covid-19 warning signs here either.