Table des matières

Guy's schooling

A number of letters from 1931 to 1937 show Guy’s early writing talents. Of course letter-writing, especially to relatives, was more frequent than now, and in this case turns out to be a blessing for us. In April 1931 (aged 9), writing from Orthez, he informs his father that he expects to get the prix d’excellence, and that the father superior has promised to let all the pupils witness the passage of the 25^th tour de France. In a post-scriptum, he conveys a message from his step-mother: “Tante to fait dire qu’elle paye toujours des traites elle n’est pas contente parce que tu ne les lui avais pas annoncées:” we are left to guess whether this was a joke or not.

In May 1933, he took first communion at the Collège Moncade, an event celebrated as was usual at the time by having a pious image printed. What is interesting here is the ironical dedication to this aunt Hélène: “A la pauvre vieille tante que j’ai fait si souvent enrager ! C’est peut-être fini.”

In July 1935, in keeping with a religious education, he underwent confirmation in Orthez.¹¹

In a letter to Hélène in 1935 (aged 13), he is decidedly ironical and even flippant : « Je t’écris aussi vite que je peux pour te rassurer sur notre sort. Notre destinée n’était pas de périr dans les gouffres alpestres… » He proceeds to give a blow-by-blow account of all the places visited, monuments admired (in four pages) and museums visited, the first sign of a life-long taste for travel tales, and also his first literary production on record (after the Granou panegyric), a distant forerunner of the book telling of the return from Australia. It may also have been his first real trip, and we can imagine his delight in leaving home and discovering the wide world. Guy would later require his children to document their trips in the same way, and now Alexandre seemed to take after him. Let us also admire that already in 1935 it was possible to visit Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Montpellier, Sète, Toulouse in a week-long car ride.

After his remarriage, Auguste stayed in close touch with his Baptiste and Hélène, as shown by the photographs of visits to Carennac, and at least one letter (29 December 1937). Conveying New Year best wishes, the letter gives news about his children and first grand-child Rose-France, daughter of his son Charles, who were all visiting for Christmas. It reports that Guy is working hard, “wanting to succeed”. Auguste had promised him a nice trip if he got good school results. They were to visit Carennac at Whitsun, where Charles and his family (probably living in Gramat at that time) would join them.

In many ways, life in Orthez in the 30’s appeared in retrospect like a lost paradise to Guy. He often dwelt in later years on the weakening of the bourgeois privileges. In those pre-war days, being a bourgeois ensured a pleasant lifestyle, with plenty of service, and roads devoid of traffic, at least that is how Guy remembered them. The Montins could spend the evening in front of their house at Rue St Gilles, with only one car every quarter of an hour. They had a number of servants, and their greatest joy was to retire to their farm, where the couple of servants would apparently provide meals for their visiting landlords. One of life’s greatest pleasure was food: Guy remembered that Louise made a point of tasting every season’s specific fruit and vegetable produce, as they came on the market.

The newfound mobility offered by motorcars was also a great source of pleasure. Family meetings could be organised on a regular basis, trips to the watering places such as Vichy or Ogeu, or just sightseeing. Among the memorable scenes witnessed during that time was the sight of the fighting in the valley of the Bidasoa, during the Spanish civil war, viewed from the French side of the river, where there was a good restaurant. The fighting apparently went on for long enough for the restaurant to be known for this special type of entertainment.

Guy was a bright boy, taking great pleasure in his course of classical studies, and this culture dwelt with him all his life. He communicated to me his love of the Greeks and Romans, which has been for me as well as for him a great source of satisfaction and inspiration. He never made any criticism of his early schooling, even after his life changed so much in later years. He seems to have been happy to have known the last signs of the greatness of a disappearing world, and there was regret in his analysis of the decline of the Church, though seemingly for aesthetic (the beauty of the dogmas and the rituals) rather than religious reasons.

His marks were consistently good in all the literary subjects. His bulletin for the end of the first term of the 1936-37 school year, when he was in “seconde” shows him as first in Greek version, first in Latin version, second in “narration”, 6^th in theme latin an French literature, out of 18 pupils. Only in Maths does he show only average results (11^th). It is noteworthy that at the time, no marks were transcribed on the bulletin (though they were given to the pupils), but only qualitative assessment (B, AB, Passable, etc), and the rank in the class. His behaviour (conduite) is judged “TB”.

Two letters of the same period, to his parents, show a more desultory or flippant tone, which will become his hallmark style later in life. He is mostly concerned with material comforts, such as pull-overs (already using the English word), and toothpaste for instance. The toothpaste is to be bought at the “Copé” (cooperative), which was the grocer’s just next door to number 1, which was still a major comfort of the house till the 1960’s. In the first letter (Nov. 1936), he says it was his turn, for the first time, to serve the daily mass, with a small mishap : “j’ai envoyé promener la sonnette en plein choeur”. After writing his letter, he had to prepare his conference at the Jeunesses Etudiantes Chrétiennes. There is a poetic description of the slow advance of the snow from crest to crest around the school.

From the second letter (13 January 1937), it is worth copying a rather cryptic sentence: “