Jean Magnon, Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

The (unphotographable at the time) house where the poet Jean Magnon (1620-62), historiographer to the king (1620-62), was born; he was assassinated. As the plaque says, his son René founded the Danish national theate in 1722. Magnon was also a playwright, and his works include Artaxerxe (1645), Josaphat (1647), Sejanus (1647) and Le grand Tamerlan et Bajazet (1648). Gabriel Jeanton wrote Notes sur la vie et l'assassinat de Jean Magnon, de Tournus, poète et historiographe du roi: 1620-1662 (1917).

Le Thé de la Soeur Borel, Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

A brilliant wall advertisement, now restored, shows 'C'est à la racine et non aux branches que frappe le thé de la Soeur Borel': the tree represents illness and merely chopping down the branches and not hitting out at the root will not solve the problem. Le thé la Soeur Borel will sort things out, it was a laxative, a purative agent, etc, and indeed this treatment was sold in chemists' shops for a certain time, although I haven't spotted any specific dates yet.

Albert Thibaudet in Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

Born in Tournus, Albert Thibaudet (1874-1936) was literary critic of La Nouvelle Revue Française betweens the wars. He wrote most of his books, essentially on literary criticism and the political analysis of the time, from his family home at 8 place de l’Abbaye in Tournus. He is particularly remembered for his expression 'La république des professeurs', the title of his 1927 book concerning the 'Cartel de gauches' (1924), Herriot, Blum et Painlevé, all from the ENS.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze in Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) is Tournus's most famous son, and gets pride of place here in the square in front of the mairie. His Père de famille lisant la Bible à ses enfants met with great success in 1755. He painted Les Œufs cassés (1756) shortly after he began a few years study in Rome. One of his most famous works, La Malédiction paternelle, is a diptych: Le Fils ingrat and Le Fils puni: (lit. 'The Ungrateful Son' and 'The Punished Son'): Greuze was interested in making emotional and moral messages.

Greuze's birthplace still exists (as you'd perhaps expect in this timeless place), and is graced by an ageing plaque.

Pierre Juenin in Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

Canonical houses where the early historian from Tournus, Pierre Juenin (1668-1747), lived in his final years (from 1745 to 1747).

Gabriel Jeanton in Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

As it says under the street sign bearing his name, Gabriel Jeanton (1881-1943) was an archaelogist, a historian and a folklorist from Tournus, although he was born in Mâcon and died in Lacrost. He was particularly interested in the culture of the département Saône-et-Loire. Among other things, he was curator of the museum in Tournus, president of the Académie des sciences, arts et Belles Lettres in Mâcon from 1925 from 1935 and president of the Société des amis des arts et des sciences de Tournus (SAAST). He is the author of a great number of local history publications.

Mural in Tournus (Saône-et-Loire (71))

As far as I can see this mural, at the side of Auchan in Tournus, is anonymous. Yet it in many ways seems to reveal what we saw as the quintessence of this town: a certain indescribable otherness, as if from another century, from in the distant past, another country even.