Les Franciscaines women in open book : "A summer with Colette" - Antoine Compagnon

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of her birth, he tells us about Colette (1873-1954). Popular writer and daring woman of the beginning of the 20th century, it is in Deauville that she found the inspiration for "Gigi", and that Colette spent her last two summers at the Hôtel Royal.

Antoine Compagnon, elected to the Académie française in February 2022, professor emeritus at the Collège de France, is the author of works devoted to Montaigne, Pascal, Baudelaire and Proust. A specialist in Marcel Proust, he has had several careers, including that of teacher, novelist and literary critic. For several summers, on France Inter, in the series "Un été avec...", he has recounted, in serials, the life and work of writers.

"Colette created three myths: "Claudine", the mischievous heroine of the first novels signed Willy; "Sido", her main character after the death of her mother, "Gigi", immortalized in the cinema by Leslie Caron. She herself, with her sensual language and her liberated life, became a Parisian legend very early on. Novelist and journalist, but also pantomime and actress, she was a sacred monster (...)". Antoine Compagnon

"The smell of the sea, which I had forgotten, passes to come to touch us, over long meadows which border it." Colette, Letters to her daughter © Gallimard 2003

Meeting, followed by a signature, animated by Philippe Normand, Cultural Director Les Franciscaines.