麻豆传媒映画

Thousands of people from all over the world visit Illiers-Combray, in the northern department of Eure-et-Loir, every year because of its associations with the great French writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922).

Proust went on holiday there from his home in Paris as a young boy to stay with his Aunt Elisabeth, his father鈥檚 sister, and this gave him his main experiences of provincial country life. Sadly, Proust was not able to continue his annual trips to the village, because when he was nine he suffered a severe asthma attack in Paris and thereafter seldom returned.

However, the memories of his holidays proved a powerful creative inspiration, and which he directly recounted in his first (unfinished) novel, Jean Santeuil.

His debut, which was not published until 1952, features a village called Illiers, which bears a striking resemblance to Illiers-Combray.

Illiers then became the main inspiration for the imaginary village of Combray in his most famous work, A la recherche du temps perdu (In search of lost time) and the first volume, Swann鈥檚 Way, is set in a place called Combray. 

Proust鈥檚 real aunt becomes Tante L茅onie, and her house the place the narrator remembers because of the famous madeleine dipped in tea which his mother offers him. This makes the memories of his time with Aunt L茅onie and Combray come flooding back. 

The madeleine is in the form of a scallop shell, no doubt because Illiers-Combray has long been a stopping point on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route which has a scallop as its symbol, and whose church is dedicated to the patron saint of pilgrims, Saint-Jacques, a.k.a. St James. 

The house he describes is based on his real aunt鈥檚 house, which has become the Maison de Tante L茅onie museum, looked after by an association, Les Amis de Proust. 

Previous editor of the association鈥檚 bulletin is Elyane Dezon-Jones, Professor of French literature and an expert on the manuscripts of Proust: 鈥淭he topography of the actual village is very similar to the one in the book, because it is built around the Saint-Jacques church, which Proust transforms into Saint-Hilaire. He uses the real old names of roads and only slightly transforms local places names, so that M茅r茅glise becomes M茅s茅glise, Mirougrain becomes Montjouvin and Rachepeli猫re becomes La Raspeli猫re. The actual house with its two wings, its small garden and the layout of the rooms, clearly inspired the descriptions of the book in his novel.鈥�

Some of the other places in the village transformed by Proust are the Pr茅 Catelan garden his Uncle Jules Amiot created and which is Monsieur Swann鈥檚 garden in the novel, and the River Loir which Proust re-names the Vivonne.  

In 1971, Illiers officially became Illiers-Combray.

President Macron has also visited the Maison de Tante L茅onie and St茅phane Bern鈥檚 Loto du Patrimoine handed over 鈧�400,000 for badly needed restoration work in the house which began in 2022, the centenary of Proust鈥檚 death.

Professor Dezon-Jones says that visitors frequently visit, book in hand, to find out the differences between the real village and the mythic Combray made immortal by Proust: 鈥淚 would say Proust is the equivalent in French culture to Shakespeare in the UK. We hope that visitors are inspired to read his work, which is universal and speaks to us all.鈥�

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