- by Philippe Koenig

Six very fortunate Jumelage members returned a few weeks ago from a "Literary Tour," a weeklong visit to sites in Normandy and in the Paris area that are associated with many of France's greatest literary figures.

The six, Judie and Al Muggia, former Winchesterites Curtis and Betty Jones, and your reporter and his wife, Sydelle Pittas, flew to Paris on Oct. 5, 2001 expectant but unprepared for the amazingly varied and full agenda carefully planned for them by our St Germain-en-Laye friends Patrice Caillet, Genevieve Parniere and Patricia Frantzen.

A quiet day of jetlag recovery, then a whirlwind schedule: Our first visit, just outside St Germain, was to the "Monte Cristo Chateau" of Alexander Dumas (1802-1870), built by the author of such favorites as " The Count of Monte Cristo " and " The Three Musketeers. " The principal building and Dumas' writing cottage share a whimsical and idiosyncratic architecture that reflect the writer's romantic imagination and peripatetic nature.

A day-long excursion to Normandy, with a busload of St Germain friends of the Winchester Jumelage, was a highlight of our tour. It included a morning visit to the country house of 17th century playwright Pierre Corneille (1606-1684), with its lovely garden, and continued along the banks of the Seine to the village of Villequiers, for a festive auberge lunch.

Then we visited the museum, a few steps away, dedicated to the life of Victor Hugo (1802-1885), the populist author of " Les Miserables " and countless other works of prose and poetry. Near this spot, Hugo's beloved daughter Leopoldine drowned in a boating accident with her husband, and roses sprouting from their graves flower side by side in the small village churchyard.

Other countryside outings took us to the small chateaux and gardens associated with Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and with Chateaubriand (1768-1848). These writers shaped French opinion and culture in the turbulent years spanning the decline and fall of the "Ancient Regime" (Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, etc.), the revolution of 1789, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the ensuing conflict between returning royalists and their "republican" opponents.

In the Paris suburbs we visited the home of Emile Zola (1840-1902), the social crusader whose "naturalistic" novels chronicling working class life (notably the striking miners in Germinal) were attacked as pornographic. Zola's campaign to overturn the rigged treason conviction of Captain Dreyfus (initiated by Zola with the famous pamphlet "J'accuse") remains a monument to the power of free speech to combat prejudice and corrupt political institutions.

In Paris itself we ambled through the home where prolific novelist Honore Balzac (1799-1850) wrote many of the novels that make up his masterpiece, " La Comedie Humaine, " a matchless portrayal of 19th century Parisian life; his chair and small work desk seemed left only for a moment.

Not by bread alone were we sustained. In modest country auberges and in historically significant restaurants like Le Procope* (since 1686, and frequented by the likes of Voltaire and the young Napoleon), our hosts pre-arranged memorable meals, justice for which would require another mouth-watering page.

This, my first Jumelage-sponsored "exchange," drove home for me the wonderful opportunity which such "exchanges" offer to our members, and to Winchesterites generally. No unescorted tour, or commercial tour, could begin to offer the combination of warm hospitality in a local home (including homes with English-speaking hosts where needed), with painstakingly prepared and guided visits to historical (or other) sites, and access at all times to expert local information on everything one might need (use the telephone, locate a doctor, etc.), all at an unbelievably reasonable price.

* Le Procope's Web page

Philippe Koenig is president of Winchester Jumelage. To learn more, visit the Jumelage Web site at:

See Writers' houses historic route.

Return