At a time when it is often said that heroes are tired, I wanted to
launch the «Maisons des Illustres» label.
In this common memory, disparate, often fragmented, that constitutes
the considerable scope of our heritage, our museums, our
monuments, our landscapes, there are places, walls, where vocations,
fates have been forged, those of the most striking figures of our
political, cultural, military, artistic, scientific history. Put them in
network is to give visitors the opportunity to put the fragments back together
of a shared history, according to the references of each, curiosities
that give the opportunity, the time of a visit, to imagine, to reconstitute a
spirit of place; to rediscover greatness in daily life, in the
prosaic sometimes, in the silence of the mansions of a time.
Trinkets, bourgeois interiors, furniture and drapes, libraries,
inkwells... A view, sometimes, on an exceptional landscape, maritime, rural,
These 111 places in France, which were also the places of
as Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet, Georges
Clemenceau, Marguerite Yourcenar near here, all share one
invitation to introspection - that which, from few clues, allows us
to understand a field of possibilities, to touch, as close as possible to lives,
It’s a way into history.
From the invention of everyday life to the history of great men, the links are
that historiographic or political cleavages cannot
break. I am convinced that in these places this crossing, which
allows us to fight against the mythologies of genius ex nihilo or
the abstraction of power; to challenge, also, demystifications for the
demystification - because by trying to put down the great stories, we
runs the risk of not having a narrative at all.
It is in this spirit that I wanted to pose, with the permission of the Admiral of
Gaulle, the first plaque of the "Maisons des Illustres" in La Boisserie, the
residence of General de Gaulle in Colombey-les-deux-Eglises, a little
more than two months. Here we are together today, 9 rue Princesse, in Lille,
in his home.
What is a birthplace? A place where, a priori, the breath of history
is not necessarily destined to pass. At most a promise of
here, a way of life, an attachment to Catholicism, a home
of textile manufacturers, a fragment of the Lille III Republic; a
filiation, an attachment, that of Charles de Gaulle for his grandsparents.
From the most biographical and intimate readings to the perspectives
more deterministic of another social history, the paths are multiple,
and that’s all the better. This multitude of readings of history is the
precisely that I favor for the Maison de l'histoire de France.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the remarkable work of the Foundation
Charles de Gaulle, in the restoration and development of these
places, which are thanks to it open to the public since 1983. A patient work
historical reconstruction, fundraising campaigns,
setting up a conference room in the old workshops
of the tulle factory and spaces for temporary exhibitions have
enabled the Foundation to make it a living memory space, which
also since 2005 on its resource center and valorization of
the work of Charles de Gaulle, whose creation
and the Ministry of Culture and
Communication have contributed, through their financial support and
expertise.
By becoming part of the "Maisons des Illustres" network, this
remains more than ever a biographical stone in our memory
national. That of an exceptional singularity for which the word
"illustrious" is unequivocal.
Thank you.