This month, I thought I’d give council politics a miss and instead write about our late June visit to France to research my next book.
Jenny and I arrived from Shanghai at Paris-Charles de Gaulle on a cheering summer’s evening – it was Friday too! Catching the RER train past soon-to-be-busy Stade de France, we bought a bunch of Metro tickets at Châtelet-Les Halles and transferred to the Mairie D’Issy line for Montparnasse. Our little hotel wasn't too far to walk. The room was tiny but a luxury to sleep in a bed after two long flights. Next morning, still rather jet-lagged, we made a dash for the Gare Montparnasse and the Grand Lignes, boarding the high speed TGV for Brest along with a crowd of weekenders.
By prior arrangement, long time email correspondent, history researcher and retired naval commander Jean-Pierre Boin was waiting at Morlaux station. After introductions, he drove us to the medieval town of Landerneau some 15km from Brest where his old friend, fellow researcher and correspondent Philippe Huon de Kermadec waited.
Philippe is a retired doctor and if the name seems familiar yes, it was his great, great, great, etc, uncle, page boy to King Louis XV, decorated naval officer in the American War of Independence, scholar and Pacific explorer Jean-Michel Kermadec, after whom the Kermadec islands are named. We stayed the next two nights at the Kermadec manoir at Pencran, at the kind invitation of Philippe and his charming wife Sabine. If our room in Paris was small, the one given us here was vast – with a fireplace too. The great stone building dating from at least the 13th Century is difficult to keep warm so the Kermadecs winter in Landerneau, returning here for summer. Philippe showed us around the grounds. I admired the huge stock of firewood he’d chainsawed from oak trees uprooted in a fierce Atlantic storm. In a clearing of holly he pointed to a recently gifted Tasmanian Huon pine, also named for his illustrious kinsman. Back inside, the evening drawing in, Philippe lit the fire while Sabine poured everyone pre-dinner whiskies. We chatted away watched over by portraits of Kermadec ancestors in naval uniform.
Sunday morning, Jean-Pierre driving, we headed for the Crozon peninsula, and the former estate of the Du Clesmeur family. Ambroise Bernard Le Jar du Clesmeur at the astonishing age of 21 succeeded Marion Dufresne as expedition commander after Marion and 24 of his crew were killed at the Bay of Islands in 1772. By the time of the French Revolution in 1789, Du Clesmeur was a senior officer in the Marine royale, a veteran of the American war.
But soon after, he and his family were forced into exile along with hundreds of other nobles. At first to London, but whereafter, despite the diligent research of Philippe and Jean-Pierre, remains a mystery. Another product of their research covered in my book ‘Navigators & Naturalists’, also with an element of mystery, is the story of Louise Girardin. This young woman having suffered the misfortune of being deserted and having a baby out of wedlock, in 1789 travelled from Versailles to Brest carrying a letter addressed to Madame Le Fournier d’Yauville, Kermadec’s widowed sister.
While the author and contents of the letter are unknown, because of it, at least three senior naval commanders, Kermadec, Du Clesmeur and D’Entrecasteaux contrived to break navy regulations, signing on Louise disguised as a man, ‘Louis’, as Admiral d’Entrecasteaux’s steward for his Pacific expedition. Louise in 1793, was the first Pakeha woman to visit New Zealand and to see Māori at Spirits Bay. Sadly, she died on the voyage home in 1795.
We found the former Du Clesmeur manoir deserted but clearly someone had done a fair bit of restoration. Through a window we saw children's books and toys. A holiday home for a wealthy city executive? But given the rank grass and weeds, deserted for at least two years. ‘Divorce’, I suggested to Philippe. He agreed.
That evening, joined by Sabine at Jean-Pierre’s spic and span, ship-shape cottage decorated with nautical paintings and other sea-faring memorabilia, he whipped up a delicious crayfish dinner.
Given the long summer twilight, it was surprisingly late by the time we got back. Next day it was time to return to Paris to begin my research in earnest. Philippe drove us to Landerneau station, refusing to leave until the train arrived. I noticed the solicitous way he chatted with the local people and concluded this was part doctor and part Kermadec noblesse oblige. (MIKE LEE)
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