Nany's letters to Jean Hausermann, 1927

 

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LETTERS from NANY to JEAN HAUSERMANN, 1927, excerpts - Jean H. is in Bizerte, he is engaged and prepares his wedding which will take place in 1928

Wednesday, 6 July 1927

13 July 1927 Vierville, Wednesday

My Jean, I write to the sound of the TSF's whistles or spittings that Jacques de Mons is fixing; he came up from Sunday to mount the antenna like last year, but the result had been very poor thanks to the batteries that probably were worn out by qq cataclysm. Jacques arrives from Bayeux and brings us another one that looks like giving well; thanks to you we will be able to enjoy music and the Simon has the smile....

...we found the house clean, the brave Melanie having wanted to do well, but our arrival had been a little spoiled by Martha's fault who had nothing less than forgotten in the train at Molay, one of our suitcases containing my two clean dresses, my 2 hats with their veils and many fragile and expensive things. J-en was really sorry, there was in it for at least 1000F. Thanks to God, she was found in the compartment in Cherbourg where I telegraphed to the station manager and I came back in possession yesterday. I saw myself without this having to go back to Paris to renegotiate, because my wardrobe is not so important that I can distract 2 dresses, as for the hats, I had more than the old gallurin of the journey!!

I found the garden in good condition, part of the hay returned (800 boots) which ensures our supply for the year; thanks to my tests of chemical fertilizer we recovered in results, what it cost and beyond! Our people worked well, so I was able to give 50F of gratuity that were well deserved and were welcome.

I'm getting a kick right now. (?) The crowds are good, but all the flowers that are saturated with rain are good. In fact, the old house is nice, you know it; you can go through all the rooms that end up, as you know, you can sew, chat, read, think of those who are absent, whose portraits are in their place on the piano of the small living room, and the hours run smoothly and smoothly.
I saw no one but the Mons who we had tea at yesterday and sent their best friends. (the mayor) I personally took an interest in your beginnings; I confirmed to him my intention to continue offering prizes to the receipts of the certificate, I did not want to maintain the master of school whom I continue to ignore. The whole band of reds still remained calm since the ex mayor resigned; the master of school had asked for several credits which increased his supplements only from 5,000F... it was refused. I have not yet seen our parish priest, although I make my pious pilgrimage every day near your dear father, and we attended the monthly Mass remote to the 9th after our arrival.

Vierville Tuesday 20 July 1927, 7 a.m.

....The two boys did not do any serious nonsense; but JP caused us a beautiful fear on July 14.^ir The floor of the Abbey Tower when JP found it easier to get down by the way of the air, by using a tree branch, this one broke under its weight and dropped it off quite strongly on the ground....The lesson will serve me, and I heard him yesterday saying to his brother "I will not go up there any more on these trees of Louis XVI"The sea-saw arrived, but the board has a huge range with its 5 meters it folds in a disturbing way under the weight of Philou and his brother...It is sure that it can't stay so. It was nevertheless very fun! And the boys are sorry to see Dagoubert disappear again a game so attractive. ...

....L'auto arrived on Saturday by the bishop of Bayeux...

Wednesday, 4:00 a.m., Cherbourg
...I organised a small Surprise Thanks to the presence of the Bishop's driver who brought us here Suzon, the two boys and I this morning in Cherbourg by car, we arrived at 10 am.(in the Gervais, Tonton Robert and Mara)

... Everything is going well in Vierville, time has gone back to the good, but there are really not many bathers. I had a visit from Legallois who would come to give me the prizes, I would continue to give the students received the certificate, but I took the opportunity to tell him what We The old town wanted to play us about the pool, naturally he could only defend himself softly, and apologize. worse I'm not going to be a good man.

... Suzon got into the car, the driver is very complacent and good teacher, he joins Bayeux tomorrow, but Suzon now knows enough to pass his certificate, and the younger one arrives (Simone, she already has her license). I went yesterday to Bayeux, settled Plateu, made some things tinkered with a door whose hinges were completely gripped; the driver will be counted 35f a day, I will give him a tip in addition, of course. Suzon is delighted with the car that is driving with a finger; my poor Pompon will be wrong, I fear, especially when Simon is going to be there....

Vierville, 28 July 1927, Thursday

Vierville 3 August 1927

..... Nothing new here, the beach is a little more lively and time seems to be getting back to the beautiful; some suspicious elegance adorn the sand and the sea route, the sunbathing has its followers and it has seen 2 people very likely of the female sex doing soccer in football canvas panties and small ad hoc jersey. It's more original than pretty, it's said....

Our old house has all its charm, the garden is wonderful, the roses bloom almost the decoration is pretty from behind the house especially, the scent peas encouraged by the numerous showers are flowered with thousand multicolored clusters that climb up to the top of the rose towers and the yellow stripe of the calceolars gives its lively note along the house helping to shine the pink and red geraniums of the flats. In front of the house the begonias are splendid as well as the hortensias but those of the geraniums demand the sun as much as that in front of the grill, whose verveins hesitate to open. The row d'hortensias that I made plant near the tower of the Abbé looks very good stowed; if this lasts is a success. At the vegetable garden the pears and apple trees are full of beautiful fruits, the peaches are covered and we eat, early ones from now, as for the groves they will end this week in the jam basins....

We may have one of those days in the afternoon the Prouveur visit (Custinals distant from the Cordelle) who would come by car from Riva-Bella, I will take advantage of it to ask him what the installation of a sink in the 1⁄2 floor would cost me (I think he was a mestrian)That would be a good addition to that little corner.

... as for us, with Pépita, where the sisters are flourishing, we will go to St. Honorine; they will go Friday to Bayeux to have one of the broken doors laid on the way home! I wrote to the insurance who will regulate...

Vierville 4 August 1927

...I went to Bayeux yesterday where I had some business races, taking advantage of the car trip that Suzon had to make to take his license to drive. She took this one off from the master...

...and Jajacques (from Mons) yesterday spent an hour with us complaining about his loneliness. He gave us 1 hour of excellent music at last Sunday's Mass, the brave Jacques, one of his friends the organ builder Koenig, the nephew of the famous Cavaillé-Kohle, came to see him and enjoyed a program that changed us from that of every Sunday. This prompted me to turn to music...I will take harmonium lessons this winter....

Vierville17 August 1927

....I take advantage of the sun to put paint on the gates and doors of the garden; we also go carbide with cement lices, and I wait for the coverr these days to do the usual tour. So I think I'll leave everything in order for the next winter...

... Finally we were yesterday to have tea at the house of Mons, and Pépitaa admired the....About d'auto, the young household Tenaille-La Heudrie is at this moment in Trevières, gone in car (Talbot s.v.p.) for Italy, they toasted a rod at qq km from Paris, cost 6000F of repair and waiting to leave we came to take refuge here. I would not be very reassured on the outcome of such a trip with such a driver.
Flondrois mécrit de Bretagne that he has just arrived with his Neighborhood (car make) named Turzumel (Tower in Breton) and that he will come here with her in the first days of September...

Vierville Saturday, August 20, 1927

Vierville Saturday, 27 August 1927

….I wanted to tell you about your little Maine, she arrived yesterday in very good health, by train via Lison, Folligny, who arrives at the Molay at 2 pm. Too late to take the little train, but it gave both sisters the pleasure of getting the new arrival with Pépita....

Vierville 27bre 1927

....The whole family S.(Sighs) left this morning by the little train, via Le Molay, for Lisieux, Paris, Reims...

.....the tea was served in the pool room, and he was a bit of a mess, the sisters, Martha, had done good things and the pastry maker was distinguished....

Vierville, 8 Sept 1927Thursday

...Jean Cordelle who arrived at us by the train of 18h30 (a new train leaving at 13h from Paris)....

....L'ami Flondrois has been here since Sunday, arriving in his superb Neighborhood, a marvel of mechanics and bodywork; we have gone out several times, it is nan-nan. The Pépta still holds the blow, and yesterday by going to Bayeux, via Balleroy and Vaubadon... she followed with all her ardour the purebred that preceded her.

...The old Flondrois seems to like it here as usual, he arrived with pockets filled with candy, and with a phonograph of travel and splendid discs – including a "Messiah", of Haendel, interpreted with organ and choirs, which is of all beauty. J

.... I have the roofer right now and I am watching his repair, our old roof deserves to be furnished, the painter has finally finished the little house of the beach, but I always wait for him for the doors, the marquesses of the house; and the greenhouse that needs a good layer. It is not serious work and I will have to look for another painter for the works that will be to be done;

My new cook is at work, it's a blue cord, worthy of old Albertine, and I breathe not to have to make stations in the kitchen anymore; it's no longer my age, not to mention that old Flondrois likes the right things....

Vierville Thursday 157bre 1927

....Simon, Jean and the two little ones left us (they just learned they were leaving for Argentina in a few months) Tuesday night for Mézidon and Bordeaux. Suzon drove them with Pépita to the train of 6:28.......more joyous bursts of laughter, frantic gallopades; time begins to unison by continuing to pour cascades on our heads... and on my hay that has not returned and can but!

.....Simon wrote on Sunday and informed them of a new orientation of their lives. (a departure for Rosario within a still uncertain time frame). John brought back from Paris the conversation he had just had with Mr. Jean Hersent. I rejoiced for them, it is an opportunity, or never, to make an interesting situation and these gentlemen give me a new assurance of their interest in your cause. Jean C. is young to be entrusted with such a mission all of trust; he realizes that he owes a part of it to his wife, therefore to your dear Father who continues to protect all those whom he loved. As for me, my John, to us all! Do I need to tell you everything our poor hearts will endure from this separation of several years, . it is the revenge of those who do not embarrass themselves with scruples or tenderness. They also deprive themselves of many joys, and I do not envy the dryness of their feelings. If only that was where Dakar is! I might well think of going to see them at least once during their stay, but the price of the trip is prohibitive and it will be prudent to keep the only possibility in an urgent and necessary case. So I am fooling my poor Simon who is sorry and satisfied at the same time with the hope of a journey... which I do not intend to do; and I will have to wait three long years for them to see again....

.....I expect we'll leave here on October 30th, the school year is scheduled to be held on October 3rd. (for Philippe) Suzon sailed on the 19th in Marseilles with Jean-Pierre and the little one. (they go to Greece to find Uncle George)

.....at home everything is fine, my cook is a blue cord.

Friday, September 22, 1927, 10 a.m.

Vierville 29 Sept 1927, Thursday 8 a.m.

… I have a good letter from Simon, but I am bored because she had just had a fever without rhyme or reason, and she wonders if it is not malaria, there is some in this country won over the swamps. She was very ill trained to receive Mr Georges Hersent who went to see her with the Marquis of the Noah (this administrator demanded by him since the moment Marcel Hersent was appointed himself) It is kind to the great boss to have been seeing the younger one, he is sure that he is particularly interested in you all.. He remembers the three children of Rosario! So I'm bored that your sister had this discomfort, and I urge her to keep an eye on herself, wherever this fever is coming in is to be watched. Mr Georges H. asked Jean C. if it didn't bother him too much to go so far and added that it wasn't for now. It's certain that it will take time to replace Rambourg!... but all of this motu.

....we leave tomorrow morning by the Molay, and we will (I hope at least) tomorrow night for dinner in Paris. Cooker and maids have left since yesterday to prepare us the house and dinner, which simplifies things when we arrive with 3 petiots...

.....A poor devil, a mason, whom you certainly know well, escaped from life this week, because his wife who had left him with their two little ones refused to go back to the bercail. I pass you the rather macabre details of the careful preparation of his suicide, ....... But this way of death is not excusable in the eyes of the church, so our priest refused the religious burial, and it put our little corner into rebellion. J-d wish this brave abbot had found a less harsh solution, the poor man who killed himself had been a 42-month prisoner in Germany, working in the mines, he had returned to epileptic; but in his conscience the priest found him guilty and did not want to hear anything.

....We had another atrocious week of wind and rain, without interruption, there was only yesterday that we had some sun.......The garden is just a mud cloacon, this lack of heat did not do good to the fruit that lacks taste; and it was still impossible to finish some usual paintings every year....I settled the notes, less Tual than I have not yet seen.

I also paid Mrs. Cusinberche for the seafront, who took her son Paul out of it, and I took the opportunity to offer him to sell me the end of the cabin, and I would return the rest without waiting for the 10 years of lease that I still have to run. She seemed interested in it, I would like to. I care about what you can do in 10 years, this will be the moment when the boys will enjoy the most of the cabin. I hope I will see you again, my Jean, (It is a question of Jean H. leaving Bizerte soon but Hersent, "these gentlemen," don't know yet where: Cherbourg?, Le Verdon?, Lisbon? Algiers? Piraeus seems excluded now)

Paris Friday 8 October 1927h1/2a.m.

....We got back in good time 8 days ago in excellent conditions: because with the Batifol who were also returning that day we had retained a compartment. This prevented us from one another this usual rush of late September towards problematic places.

(Paris) Wednesday evening 12 October 1927

....A word from Simon this morning tells me that they have received the carpets that are lovely, it seems that it makes rich! I don't doubt it!...(Tunisian carpets bought for the Cordelle in Bizerte by Jean Hausermann)

....I sent you your trunk of effects, which is attached here, not by the care of Dahier but by those of the Transatlantic, I was assured that she would take the boat for Friday for Bizerte. It was necessary that I entrust the keys to the Cie, the French customs may have the requirement to open it, but it seems absolutely without inconvenience. I have assured everything for 3000F.... 31kilos for 40 and in high speed), the trunk taken at home by the Cie's care costs me 115F, while your chairs sent in low speed the number of 50 It's unacceptable and your guy from Tunis is a famous thief. I want to send the two leaves so you can compare and if you need to go protest if you go to Tunis.....

.....Mara is fine but Tonton has just had bronchitis: cataplasms, suction cups, all the tremor, it's not without concern, although it's back on its feet; for it has a very disturbing neighborhood (Mara is chronically ill with tuberculosis). I intended to talk about it seriously tonight with Adolphe who will be dining with us and Tantine. We saw this one on Saturday, she was celebrating her 75th birthday, she could be envied of her health, she returned browned like a gypsy; she took her bath every day in Cavalaire. She had invited us to dinner Saturday night with all her children, I had told her an invitation to the Bousquet, I hardly cared about spending an entire evening with Pich.(Marthe Pichorel, her niece, the "communist"...) And I had before I left, a vision of the kitchen that makes me, thinking about it, put my heart on the lips. I rarely saw such filth.

.....In Vierville everything is cupped, the good weather allows the last paintings and works before winter. I have put necrol on tennis, it was so much rain this summer, that it was not possible to put it back on, the ground was completely in sponge. It is still unfortunate. I do not know if I said that I had a barrier for the Fossé-Gras redone. It is Laterrier who lays it, a double-valve barrier, made of carbonyl oak, simple but solid. J.e. for 300F.

I'm almost in the middle of talking to buy some of the beach land, but we'll talk about it in person...

Paris 20 Oct 1927

......we had Tantine and Adolphe G. (Gervais, brother of Tonton Robert) I'm just having dinner, both healthy, Tantine more than ever, and I admire her 75 years. Then Robert, his wife and Claude came after dinner. The first^ir coughs and it gets bored, he complains a little bit of fatigue.. but his wife had a new coat of fur.

....The old Flondrois is in Concarneau, he decided to buy the villa, and will be able to spend any money he wants. Too bad it's so far away! 585km from Paris....

Thursday, 26 October 1927Paris

...I would like you to see a grammatical analysis, it was not easy for young minds, it becomes algebraic. It had to be composed by a member of the Institute! So I understand the exclamation of my Philou to whom I was sharing the beginnings of Michel "Poor Michel! He doesn't know what is waiting for him"

Good news on this side, they know you'll be their neighbor soon. (We are planning to send Jean Hausermann to the next Verdon site, not very far from Grattequina) Simon wrote that they still have good ones for the winter in Grattequina. And since they know nothing new about Rambourg they make their arrangements to spend it as pleasantly as possible....

Paris 3 Nov 1927

…I found an invitation to Jacqueline de Bughas' wedding on the way home next Tuesday. It's really terrible. The poor girl had the sad courage, despite her wounds, to assist her fiancé until the end and to bury her, but she seems like 40 years old and she is lighter than a spectre. Madame de B. is still very bad but it is thought out of danger, the eldest fis has both broken clavicles, the little one with both thighs. The owner of the tamponous car is dead, he is the son of a doctor – Mr Hubert – from Cherbourg, who was going to his dying father. What a disaster!

Paris 17 Nov 1927

Paris Thursday, Nov. 24, 1927

...Good news from Bordeaux where Jean C. works on certain arrangements for the Verdon without having yet seen Bertard. This one was reported to Cherbourg by Mara, he came to take some equipment. The cadets always wonder what they will do; Jean C. would accept perfectly, Simon said, to assist Bertard if you don't have to go to the Verdon, but, I am told, Bénézeth may hesitate to talk about it. I didn't hear anything new and I really want to go to the Héberts one of these days. ...

Paris Thursday 1^ir Xbre 1927

.....Tomorrow I will buy the toys of the Christmas tree of Vierville, I had this week a good and affectionate letter from Mrs. de Mons who keeps a very deep sadness. I believe she is very tormented by the health of her husband. Jacques is still working here at the organ of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet.

.....First I flanked my cook at the door; I had nothing to say about her kitchen and service, but she was untreatable, I waited so long as I could not change, but the measure was at its peak when on Sunday she meant that I didn't have to set foot in the kitchen. I kept myself out for not the plug immediately; I thought it was boring to do without her service, she will leave Sunday, I have another one that will go Monday, there is at this moment as we want; I don't bile for that.

.....you must already have a letter from Simon telling them that they will go to Verdon once Jean has finished in Grattequina, and you will be joining your post in March. That's the news that Bertard and Simone brought them, it's getting back to Rosario (which I think will certainly be later) and then you'll all be together and it's good. a little I'm sorry. I'm glad to hear that. She writes the good girl, "Be quiet, we will not disturb the young household..." I do not doubt it; But besides the pleasure you'll probably have to find yourself with your cadets, I'm sure that you bless this neighborhood for your little Maine who will make it easier for you to set up and her.^era And so we have nothing but to rejoice very sincerely and I was very heartwarming to know that you were gathered – in part – in a small part of France where I could sometimes go back to my own place.

...I had Mrs. Feige (Grandmother Feige) at lunch on Sunday, the poor woman is very lonely, her daughter (Mother) I had to go back from Cambo yesterday, I took him back to his bus which passed to the Champs Elysées, showing him the passage of the Lido. There is a mixture of nice things that is a pleasure of the eyes; there was a crazy world. Do you know that this ends with a swimming pool? and that Mrs Feige told me that a friend of Mrs. Lapraye had rented with friends, one evening, from 8am to midnight, and that she was received in ..bathing...we imagine the geneless that it could have brought! Mrs. Cordelle always sees Mrs. Lapraye....

Paris 8Xbre 1927Thursday

......It seems that Martin will soon embark for Europe with his wife, because he must take some rest. Do you know that he must not be far from 70 years old, if he does not have them! I wonder what would become of this house, if he disappeared. Flondrois says that the son-in-law is a man able to follow. It does not seem the same of the sons who are apart from Tolito, quite any...

......I had to go to the lawyer who represents me at the court on Saturday for conciliation with my owner. I recommended that he try to compromise, I would prefer this to a judgment that would cause me more or less harm to this one, and if I want to stay in the apartment this is not the time.^ir July 1930. Here we can see! Mr Bousquet offers me a plot of land for our future house at the corner of Lamothe-Piquet Avenue. I don't like this neighborhood at all, where the grounds are horribly expensive at the moment. To think about it, I think it will be better to just rent an apartment than to put myself in a business like this, which could lead me far away. I have just done the check on what our dear father left and what remains to be touched at Rosario and I have come to this decision. I will write to Bousquet to share my impressions.
I just got disturbed by the visit of old Flondrois, whom I believed in his Brittany......He works to arrange his house and he's emptying his wallet. I told him about what I was saying above. He doesn't want to engage now in building a house, I think the case is buried.

Thursday 15thbre 1927Paris

In exactly 8 days I will leave for Vierville without Philou that I will send rue du Petit Musc; it is really not prudent to take this little one barely recovered from a big cold in this great cold house, and for so little time, I intend to spend there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday Christmas day. .....Then Monday I will be in Cherbourg where I will see Mara and Tonton.

....Tantine had lunch with us on Tuesday, always going, extraordinary, she had not slept once before midnight in the previous week! Robert is half well and coughs, his wife n' takes care of it and she is wrong. Claude works a lot...

...My new cook is good, she makes good bourgeois cuisine, if she knows how to make fewer cakes than the other, she has the smile, I like it better...

Tuesday 20Xbre 1927Paris

.......I'll leave Paris on Thursday by the 3.50pm train to Cherbourg I've written to the hotel and I haven't warned the big ones. (Mara and Tonton) I'll be surprised Friday morning. I'll be there on Friday and Saturday, I'll have a lot to do, because I'd like to win some of your stuff, including the oil stove that I'm missing at this moment when we're recording –8° in the morning and again –6° at 11 o'clock – I wonder if our poor plantations will have resisted at this temperature because I'm being told the same intense cold in Normandy; I'll be Sunday Christmas day at V. and Tuesday at 5 o'clock back here. ......

Christmas at night

Thursday, 29th of February, 1927

.... I don't know what you're saying to me about Jean Cordelle and Bizerte, we telegraphed to Sagne asking him if he wanted to go to Rosario, he replied that his wife's health was not very good enough for him and that he would leave only if nobody else was here... (Chedal) m-written: it is the most complete inconsistency in the office where no direction is felt.

.... I left everything in order to V. given the usual tyranny to the parish priest, to Leon, Jeanne, Mélanie, the Thomass, the woman who comes to wash and even the old Louise. Everyone seemed happy. It had a terrible time on Monday, the sea was disassembled, with which a diluvian rain, impossible to hold an umbrella, it was necessary to wear the outfit of the great days, pilgrim and hoofs to face the outside. The poor garden is mutilated all is frozen as vegetables but the greenhouse held. Our people watch over it. This rain allowed to make an inspection tower at the attic. We're going to have to make a decision for a serious repair to the roof, the curator Suzanne was worth nothing, his successor Osmond is no better, he is ill-equipped in ladders, and works alone what is difficult. I've informed myself of someone more skillful.

I didn't see Coulmain. (I think he was mayor of Longueville) who had come on Saturday but his brother who brought the rent - 4000F - for the 1^eraIn spite of the lease in his son's name, he is actually the one who keeps herbage from the wood, and I like it as much. I didn't see Leterrier but he supplied me with apples and oats that will be deducted from the 2000F that he still pays this year. The new cider ms seemed good. The big cellar is full of wood that Leon will break as it goes. The cypresses of tennis have reached such a strength and the land where they took root is so soft that the wind has all more or less lying, but without there being too much harm. We'll hold them with big oak poles that we'll find in two dead trees of wood...

...On the way home I found a big mail, the house in order, the maids at their post and mother Bonnin (the concierge) smiling.. effect of the 1^ir I'm not gonna be a good kid.
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