Most towns in France have a monument aux morts, a memorial to the local men killed in World War I. They are often quite simple as far as public art goes, an obelisk, say, with the formula: "Pour les enfants de XXXXac, morts pour la France" or "pour la Patrie." And the names, either in alphabetical order or else by date of death. They are very democratic this way, rich and poor intermingled. Sometimes the commissioned and non-commissioned officers are given their rank but usually not.
In March, I think, there's a kind of veteran's day celebrating the end of the Algerian War. Someone with a deep voice reads each name on the monument and the rest of the crowd intones, "Mort pour la France!" I've adopted my friend Bruce's practice of saying each name to myself.
Often, the names of those who died in World War II are chiseled in on the back sides and even the dead from Vietnam and Algeria. And that's about it. France is apparently rather sad about its wars. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 was a crushing defeat (that yielded surprisingly few memorials.) WWI was a pyrrhic victory; WWII was a complete defeat; Vietnam ended in the "humiliating" defeat at Dien Bien Phu, though you would think the humiliating thing would be the inhumanity of lording it over an empire in the first place. Algeria ended in defeat with France itself in a state of low level civil war.
Well, Castelfranc has it monument aux morts like every other self-respecting town. It's in the middle of a pretty, manicured park that seems oblivious to all the heavy truck traffic roaring past on the 911. (By the way, the 911 was re-christened the 811 after 9/11).
But just down the road there's different kind of memorial, the only one I've seen in France that actually glorifies a war hero. The hero is native son, Jean Lavayssiere, born across the street.
But just down the road there's different kind of memorial, the only one I've seen in France that actually glorifies a war hero. The hero is native son, Jean Lavayssiere, born across the street.
The plaque on the house just says, "Here was born Sgt Jean Lavayssiere, hero of Sidi-Brahim"
The battle is Sidi-Brahim fought in 1845. According to wikipedia this battle was like Monty Python doing a parody of the Alamo.
A few hundred French pitted against many thousands of Berbers. The French run out of ammo and resort to a desperate charge, swinging their rifle butts and hurling glassfuls of terrible wine. 16 make it out alive, of whom five later die. So Lavayssiere was pretty lucky, it would seem, having lived to the ripe age of 71. And being awarded the coveted Legion d'Honneur. And he got to be buried just across the 911 from where he was born.
A few hundred French pitted against many thousands of Berbers. The French run out of ammo and resort to a desperate charge, swinging their rifle butts and hurling glassfuls of terrible wine. 16 make it out alive, of whom five later die. So Lavayssiere was pretty lucky, it would seem, having lived to the ripe age of 71. And being awarded the coveted Legion d'Honneur. And he got to be buried just across the 911 from where he was born. Today it's hard to see much of anything glorious in France setting out in 1830 on a decades-long effort to conquer Algeria for its resources. Especially when it all ended with the horrors of the 1954-62 Algerian war that tore France itself apart and left Algeria still exploited and groaning under tyranny and ferocious unemployment.
