My Visit to
Montreuil-Sous-Bois,
2003
by
Leonard Babin ~ September, 2006
This side of the family is descended from
Mathieu's third marriage with Marguerite Balan.
Reading the stories (Gaston Guay and Armel Guay)
reminded me that I intended to report to the Castonguays on
my visit to Montreuil-Sous-Bois, France
in 2003. But, I didn't find much of significance
there, so I procrastinated, and never did write about it. After reading the Guay
family stories, forwarded from Lorraine and from Aunt Irene, I decided that it
was time to report, even
if it wasn't a terrifically exciting or educational event.
It was Bastille Day, the 14th of July, 2003. I
had hiked all around Paris with a friend the day before, and in the evening went
to the Champ de Mars with him and his girlfriend, and a hundred thousand other
people, to see the Eiffel Tower lit up like stars in the milky-way, but
blinking, not twinkling. It was an impressive show that ended in the early
morning hours. I woke up too late to see the Bastille Day parade.
After a bit of reckoning to decide how much money
to put in the automated vending machine for metro tickets outside of the city
center, I took the metro to Le Pont de Montreuil station. There is no more
"bois" over Montreuil. Outside the metro station was a continuum of
unimpressive Parisien outskirts with a middle-eastern-type bazaar sprawling in
every direction, staffed by people of every national origin. They were selling
watches, clothes, pictures, plumbing - anything and everything by the side of
the road. I walked up the Rue de Paris toward the Mairie de Montreuil. The
neighborhood was populated by North Africans and Middle Easterners. I bought a
samosa and a "brochet de poulet" from a street vendor. A perfect lunch!
Bastille Day didn't mean much in this
neighborhood as most shops were open, including all of the barbers and
hairdressers of which there was a disproportionate amount. I hadn't had a
haircut in seven weeks so the hair on my face and head (don't laugh) were about
1 inch long and sticking out like a cartoon character with his finger in an
electric socket. I stopped in and had a barber pass his "buzzer" over my face
and head with a number one comb. Going out of the shop into the sunshine I
worried about getting sunburn over my ears and on my cheeks.
I strolled over to Montreuil Cemetiere, the
City Park and museum and found nothing historical there. I looked in the
telephone book
and found no Guays and only two Prevosts. (I didn't know to look for Le Guets).
Montreuil is on the top of a hill (you might have anticipated since the name
starts with Mont) just a half mile or so from the Chateau de Vincennes. So, I
went to visit the Chateau. Construction on the chateau began in 1158 and it
grew over the years. It was originally a hunting lodge, then a vacation home
for kings, the royal palace, a military fortress, a prison, an
arms-manufacturing plant and an armory. Now, it's a police museum. When Gaston
Guay and Jeanne Prevost left Montreuil In the 17th century, the architect Louis
Le Vau built for Louis XIV a pair of isolated ranges mirroring one another
across a parterre to one side of the keep, suited for the Queen Mother and
Cardinal Mazarin, but rebuilding was never pursued once Versailles occupied all
their attention. (The last sentence is from the Chateau de Vincennes website
and I don't know what was going on between the Queen Mother and the Cardinal.)
I walked across the street from the chateau
entrance to a brasserie where I sipped a "Blanche de Bruges" (beer), musing over
the idea that, living just up the road from the chateau, the Guay family might
have been involved, somehow, with the military and government
folks at the Chateau. (The Le Guet meaning of watch or lookout would suggest
this.) I wondered if Gaston might have had a
"Blanche de Bruges" as he negotiated getting a "seigneurie" in the Nouvelle
France.
I
took the metro back to "Sebastopol" and walked toward my hotel near the Gare de
l'Est looking for a place to eat. Most businesses were closed for the holiday.
I finally found a Turkish restaurant near the Gare de Nord that was open. I was
reminded that 10 percent of the current French population is of Arab derivation
and Muslim. I like their food - with a demi of
Cote du Rhone.
Love to all,
Len
Note:
My Castonguays settled on Bardsley Street,
in "The Flint" section of Fall River just over 100 years ago. They had 14
children of which 10 survived. Having added 5 more generations, the clan is
enormous now, spreading all over the USA.
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