A land of inspiration for many writers
The North has inspired many writers and has given birth to many titles of literature. One thinks of course of Zola who, through Germinal, described so well the industrialization and its consequences in the region. The development of the mining industry favored the economic growth of the region, but it was not without sacrifices because the working conditions of the miners remained particularly trying.
The Bay of the Somme has remained a symbol of Colette's novels. George Bernanos, a native of the region, set most of his novels in Lumbres, near Saint-Omer. And how could one not travel through the novels of Maxence van der Meersch, who describes the region like no one else in novels such as Maria, fille de Flandre or L'Empreinte de Dieu, which received the Goncourt prize in 1936?
But the literature of the region also includes leading figures of contemporary literature. Marguerite Yourcenar lived in Lille until 1912 and a family property located on the Mont Noir now houses artists' residences. Jacques Duquesne's novel, Maria Vandamme, paints a beautiful portrait of a woman in the industrial 19th century, from the "corons" to the textile workshops of Roubaix. More recently, Marie Desplechin won the 2005 Prix Médicis for La Vie sauve. Michel Quint also regularly regales his readers with well-crafted noir novels and had a resounding success for Effroyables jardins in 2000. In 2013, he was inspired by a news story about the missing of the Deûle with En dépit des étoiles. Let's also think of Franck Thilliez and his Lille-based commissioner Franck Sharko.
Among the most illustrious French writers are also Picards. The Aisne has seen the birth of Jean de La Fontaine, Jean Racine, Alexandre Dumas, Paul Claudel and the Marquis de Condorcet. The Oise has welcomed Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Roger Vaillant. Finally, the Somme is not to be outdone with Jules Verne, who was certainly born in Nantes, but who spent a large part of his life (and ended it) in Amiens, where he was an active city councilor. The most translated French author in the world is celebrated in a beautiful museum installed in his old house in Amiens, which inspired him for his most beautiful works.
A particularly inspiring Opal Coast
The Opal Coast inspired many writers. Among the most famous and recognized, Victor Hugo and his masterpiece Les Misérables which takes place in Montreuil-sur-Mer. It was after a trip to the North and to Belgium that Victor Hugo discovered the city in 1837. Years later, when he began writing Les Misérables, the memory was so vivid that he decided to set the first part of his plot in the city of ramparts. The novel was published in 1862, and has since been considered an emblematic novel of French literature. Twenty years earlier, the writer Alexandre Dumas also published another great classic whose action takes place partly on our coast, the famous novel The Three Musketeers. The writer decided to include scenes in Boulogne and Béthune, which he took care to visit in order to capture the atmosphere.
A certain predilection for detective stories
Very much in vogue for the last ten years in the region, the detective story has many emulators and is promoted at the heart of many festivals. Alongside the historic Lens thriller festival, there are numerous variations in small and large towns: Polartifice in Le Touquet Paris-Plage, Les Forges obscures in Trith-Saint-Léger, Les Géants du Polar in Douai or Les Mines noires in Noeux-les-Mines... : so many names as inspired as inspiring. And there is no doubt that new festivals on the genre will be created in the years to come in the region. The publisher Rivet-Anceau is also developing the collection Polars en Nord, which now includes more than 200 titles and is constantly expanding.
Many thrillers take place on the Opal Coast, whose beautiful landscapes and lands marked by numerous historical conflicts fascinate. It is a land punctuated by fishing villages, some of which still seem to be between two eras. A coastline with beautiful sandy beaches, where you can find blockhouses and wrecks. Occupied by the enemy during the Second World War, the Opal Coast was the scene of bloody confrontations and heroic rescues such as Operation Dynamo in Dunkirk, which never ceases to inspire new works, sometimes from the point of view of the sailors, sometimes from that of the men who stayed in town to slow down the enemy. A land of contrasts, which offers the best, while not forgetting the worst. Inland and in the mining basin, the development of the mining industries allowed for a certain economic boom, and created real small towns in the mining cities and their characteristic corons. But this came at the cost of real tragedies, such as the Courrières disaster, which was the deadliest in Europe. In 1906, the explosion in this mine near Lens killed more than 1,100 people (a third of whom were under 18 years old) and plunged the whole of France into turmoil. It was also the starting point of a real social movement demanding more safety in the mines and new measures, but it was only the tip of the iceberg of difficult and trying working conditions.
In this strong historical context, it is not surprising to see the emergence of so many thrillers drawing their inspiration from the dramas and the past of the North, as well as from its so characteristic landscapes. A past that its inhabitants are keen to value and honor rather than deny. There is a real desire to go beyond the clichés associated with the region, to show the humans behind the headlines. To show, behind the "black faces" (nicknames of the miners) and the soldiers, these men and these women who have a life and dreams, just as each one can have some.
The Regional Network of Writers' Houses and Literary Heritage in the Hauts-de-France
Originally created in 2010 as the Réseau régional des maisons d'écrivain et des patrimoines littéraires en Picardie, it was extended to the whole region in 2017. This initiative has several missions aimed at different audiences: it promotes the region's literary heritage and contributes to its visibility by creating projects, meetings and festivals, and participates in educational actions aimed at school audiences. It brings together 16 writers' houses, 1 European writers' residency center, 6 heritage sites and 14 writing associations. The latter is behind the Résonances festival, during which numerous workshops, conferences and literary walks are held to promote the literary heritage of France and the region.
The network includes numerous sites linked to writers from the 16th to the 21st century. In the Aisne region, these include the Musée Jean de la Fontaine, the Musée Alexandre Dumas and the Maison de Camille et Paul Claudel. In Oise, the Musée Jean Calvin and the Domaine de Chaalis. In the Somme, the well-known Maison de Jules Verne, which looks back on the author's career and work, and the Historial de la Grande Guerre, which pays tribute to the writers of the war period. And in the Nord region, the Musée de l'Abbé Lemire, the birthplace of Charles de Gaulle and the Villa and Parc Marguerite Yourcenar, also a residence for European writers.
The Picardy or "Chti" language honoured
People often talk about "Chtis" when they think of the North, but do you really know what this word means? It actually refers to one of our two regional languages: Chti (or Picard) and West Flemish. While West Flemish can be heard mainly on the borders of Belgium and what is now Flanders, Picard used to be spoken throughout the region. Now little spoken or understood (according to a 1999 INSEE study, it is spoken or understood by only 10% to 27% of the regional population), it nevertheless has its own dictionary published by the Agence Régionale de la Langue Picarde.
Picardy literature developed mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was initially political writings that put it on the map, with the revolutionary Pierre-Louis Pinguet and the Bonapartist Clément Paillart. But songwriters and poets soon joined the movement, and some fine writers emerged, including Alexandre Desrousseaux, author of the song P'tit Quinquin, one of our "monuments" of Picardy song. Picard is characterized not only by its many applications, but also by its authors, whose origins are as varied as they are unique. Many miners have spoken in Picard, a phenomenon unique in France, and one of the best-known is Jules Mousseron and his stories of Cafougnette in Denain (you'll probably walk down rue Jules Mousseron when you stroll through the town center!).
Today, the Prix de littérature en picard (Picard literature prize) continues to honor this language, which is still spoken by several hundred writers. The prize is open to writers of all genres (short stories, novel excerpts, poetry, etc.). Its aim is to encourage the diversity of Picardy writing, but also to encourage hesitant writers to take the plunge and overcome their writing complexes. The event culminates in a reading of the winning texts at the Maison Jules Verne in Amiens, and their publication. In addition, major publishers regularly undertake to translate well-known works such as Astérix, Tintin and Le Petit Nicolas into Picard. It would seem that Picard still has a bright future ahead of it!
