Charles Maurras, Bouches-du-Rhône (13), Roquevaire

The anti-semitic Charles Maurras (1868-1952), journalist, essayist, politician and French poet, member of L'Académie française and one of the principal movers behind the ultra-right Action française, is buried in the cemetery in Roquevaire.

Behind this grave, the wonder of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, painted so many times by Cézanne.

The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)

 'La Maison de celle qui peint', lit. 'The House of the Woman who Paints' is the major attraction by a very long shot in Roquevaire, more specifically in Pont-de-l'Étoile, a hamlet in that commune. She received a 'progressive' education (à la A. S. Neill if a semi-equivalent needs to be found in terms of English culture), and this was important to her development as an individual. She married at the age of eighteen, and it was after her divorce in 1970 that she began to find herself as an artist. The relatively short time we spent with Danielle Jacqui was quite revealing: she is a very remarkable, gifted woman with strong intellectual qualities, a large knowledge of things artistic, and a keen sense of nuance. As a person educated in mainly literary sources, I was very interested in how literature could be placed among her interests and influences. Danielle Jacqui's early literary influences include Lewis Carroll (the Queen figures among the artistic characters here), Henry Miller and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou), and largely foreign writers such as Russian ones. When I tried to press her on her influences by contemporary French writers, she agreed to an interest in Marie NDiaye, but more particularly Marguerite Duras (both among my all-time favourite authors).

The images I include below I do so without comment, partly because many of Danielle's inspirations come from within her mind and body, they are largely figures from her unconscious mind, often inexplicable. Unfortunately it wasn't possible for me (because of the time of day) to take a good shot of the exterior of her house, but I include a few lousy ones nonetheless. Inside, I try to sum up in pictures what Danielle is about: her Arbre de vie ('Tree of life') with its hands with eyes pushing away evil; there's a shot of her office; the staircase; the atelier; the bedrooms; a poem; an unpublished novel-cum-diary; most of all, Danielle is everywhere here. It was a very rare privilege, and indeed an honour, to have Danielle Jacqui talk to us, to make very intelligent nuances and most of all to be just who she is: a great artist and a great mind.

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