CIMETIÈRE SAINT-GERVAIS

Lectoure's picturesque Saint-Gervais cemetery is the final resting place of Aurélie Soubiran, a woman whose life was full of romance. Born in 1820, the daughter of a relatively dishonest Lectoure adventurer and heartbreaker, she became Princess of Wallachia (now part of Romania) at the age of 29! But before this unexpected princess life, she led a particularly busy early life in Paris, writing novels and even trying her hand at acting at the Théâtre de l'Odéon, rubbing shoulders with such literary greats as Alexandre Dumas and Honoré de Balzac. And it was in the hectic pace of this Parisian cultural and literary life that she met Prince Grigore IV Ghika, who decided to marry her in 1849. She lived in Romania for ten years, and developed a real passion for the land and its people. The woman we now call Princess Ghika wrote several books to introduce the French to the country. But a traffic accident took her husband away from her suddenly and prematurely, and she ended up settling, with an income, in Lectoure, the land of her paternal family. Here, she wrote many novels, maintained extensive correspondence and often entertained her many friends. She finally died there peacefully at the age of 84. The only Gers princess rests for eternity in this pretty, tranquil cemetery...