26 November 2015

Paris 2015: Jean Guéhenno, 6e arrondissement

« UN LIVRE EST UN OUTIL DE LIBERTÉ»
JEAN GUÉHENNO
1890 – 1978
ÉCRIVAIN
A VÉCU ICI LES VINGT DERNIÈRES ANNÉES DE SA VIE
« LES PEUPLES, COMME LES HOMMES,
SE MESURENT À LEURS RÊVES. »

LA MÉMOIRE DES LIEUX

The plaque is on 35–37 rue Pierre Nicole, in the 6th arrondissement, and the quotation 'Les peuples, comme les hommes, se mesurent à leurs rêves' is from La France dans le monde (1946). Jean Guéhenno was born in Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine (35) from a modest background: his father was a shoemaker, and Jean had to leave school at the age of fourteen to work in a shoe factory, an experience which the self-educated writer describes in his autobiography Changer la vie : Mon Enfance et ma jeunesse (1961). He was elected to the Académie française in 1962.

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