Authors
The Gévaudanese dialect is akin to the langue d'oc. So it's only natural that it, too, should have had its defenders. Like Frédéric Mistral, Félix Remize (1865-1941) wrote his most famous work in this language: Les Contes du Gévaudan.
In another register, Jean Larteguy (1920-2011), born in Aumont-Aubrac and author of Les Centurions and Si tu reviens en Margeride, described the north of Lozère with humor and love: "A country so poor that crows take a musette to cross it, but the most beautiful country in the world".
For the record, Paul Éluard took refuge in 1943 at the Château de Saint-Alban, which at the time housed an insane asylum, and wrote his collection of poems Souvenirs de la maison des Fous.
The destiny of Céleste Albaret, born in Auxillac, near La Canourgue, is also linked to literature. This modest servant was brought to fame by her employer, who featured her in some of his books. She was entirely devoted to this capricious master. She assisted him in his death in 1922, and outlived him by more than 60 years. His name was Marcel Proust!
A few other writers set their novels in Lozère: Aubrac for Christian Signol in La Promesse des sources, Rieutort-de-Randon for Henri Dellerba in Les Irascibles or Lanuéjols for Pascal Lainé's crime novel Trois petits meurtres et puis s'en va... Among regionalist writers, Marie de Palet enjoyed great success. Her novels Les Terres bleues, La Demoiselle, Retour à la terre... are set exclusively in Lozère. The teacher, born in Mende in 1934, tells the stories of local people and their lives in another era. Yves Pourcher, a university professor born in Mende in 1955, also shares his passion for Lozère in his books. These include Le Rêveur d'étoiles, a wartime novel about Jérôme Charbonnel, who leaves the fields of his family's Coulagnettes farm for the battlefields of the First World War. Jean-Paul Mazot has written Visages de la Lozère au XXe siècle, a historical account of politics, the economy, leisure and tourism, health care, religion, culture and education, and heritage between 1901 and 2000.
And demonstrations
Lozère also demonstrates its attachment to books and their authors through regular events at Saint-Chély, where the bookshop Le Rouge et le Noir organizes literary encounters. Every year, Marvejols organizes another book fair, while Sainte-Enimie specializes in comic strips... The departmental lending library also has a number of branches and a mobile Bibliobus that travels the region. Whether or not they are linked to the presence of a rural home, municipal libraries, run by volunteers at arm's length, are wonderful breeding grounds for reading of all kinds. In addition, they sometimes offer events, readings and storytelling, especially for young audiences. And if we add a few fine bookshops in Mende, Florac, Nasbinals and Marvejols, you shouldn't be short of reading material during your stay!
