“ My father worked as a baker at the King’s Mill on the banks of the Touvre, in Magnac-sur-Touvre. My mother lived on the other side of the river, where my grandfather had a long boat with a large pole: he put large straps to catch eels or trout that he stored in a fishpond to serve them during parties or when he invited the priest. My grandfather was a disbelieving, he was not a believer at all, but he invited the priest to his table anyway. He was also always upset; he had been a companion of the Tour de France. The companions were young men who travelled away to learn far from home. He had chosen Carpentry of marine as his activity. As a trophy, he kept a leather apron.
At the age of nineteen, my mother was a home-based seamstress. Once, the seamstresses use to spend a day in the farms or in the houses, rather in the homes actually, of more fortunate people. Either they used to do the ravishing, to repair or mend, or they dressed the women by sewing aprons or dresses. I don’t know where my mother learned sewing, maybe she did it by herself. My father met my mother after the war, when he came back; he was about 34 years old. It’s horrible what he experienced during this period, he was full of lice, he could not wash, nor anything at all. My parents got married quickly because he wanted to start a family. My mother probably wanted to get away from her parents. Well, not from my grandmother, because she was a lovely woman, up from her meter fifty. Sometimes, she got angry when my grandfather got too annoying. When she dared to contradict him, he used to say, with round eyes: “Madam has said!” At that time women were submissive, especially in the countryside, they could not even cut their hair without their husband’s permission. They did not vote, of course. It was different from my parents since my father came out from the countryside. He was more modern; he owned a car very rapidly, I remember it. The car was completely uncovered, where six to eight people could sit.
At that time women were submissive, especially in the countryside, they could not even cut their hair without their husband’s permission.
After the wedding, my parents went to live at the King’s Mill, where I was born the following year, September 18, 1922. My brother Lucien was born fourteen months later. My parents then moved to Sers, a town where my father came self-employed. He was making the bread in the back room, and my mother was selling it in the room that looked out on the street. They started like that; they were not very rich. Lucien and I were sleeping upstairs; Bonne-Maman was putting us to bed. We were playing with our feet. That is my oldest memories. I also remember one of my mother’s client. She was a bit round, and was babysitting me from times to times to relieve my mother. She had a huge hair, she used to undo her bun, take off her pins and let me style and comb her hair for hours. At least it felt like hours to me. The pleasure I felt was incredible, up on a chair, playing with her hair. I must have been three or four, not more. I remembered this person by seeing Mrs Foisson get dressed up by her granddaughters. Since then I came back to Sers, and I did not recognize anything, except the place where this lady lived.”
