Julien Larère-Genevoix will be there on Sunday, alongside the opponents at the Jargeau Bridge. The grandson of the Loirétain writer Maurice Genevoix was the guest of France Bleu Orléans, this Friday morning. He assures us that his grandfather would have been opposed to the proposed bridge over the Loire. “Maurice Genevoix was not against progress. On the other hand, he was for a kind of rationalization of things and to say quite simply that one should not go too fast and do absolutely anything because it was quite irreversible afterwards “, he explains on France Bleu Orléans.
You will be in Jargeau, Latingy wood on Sunday, with the opponents of the Loire bridge project. And say you’re doing it on behalf of your grandfather. Isn’t it a bit daring to make the dead talk?
It is not a question of making the dead speak. It’s just about remembering all of what they were. And Maurice Genevoix has clearly had all his life, extremely strong comments on the importance of maintaining our ecosystems and maintaining our landscapes, so come and say, forty years after his death, that‘he would probably not have been enthusiastic about this project which once again passes very close to his property, I do not believe that it is to betray his memory much.
Why do you think your grandfather would be against this deviation project?
I am working on the preface to One Day. When this book came out in 1976, he was being questioned and he just said that : “Many of our contemporaries are losing their minds because they did not understand, that to exist is a grace, that the others are precious and that the objects, the animals, the trees, the houses and the landscapes are friends. And they are there, running in all directions, wondering what to do or not to do in order not to sink into stupidity, loneliness and unhappiness. And they are told that their you say? To love life by ceasing to sell it off, to seek happiness where it is, that is to say in friendship with others and with creatures. “.
Since your grandfather died 40 years ago, the world has changed, society has evolved. “It’s progress”, says Nino Ferrer in “The House by the Fountain”. This bridge, isn’t that just the meaning of the story?
I don’t think that’s the meaning of the story. Maurice Genevoix was not against progress. On the other hand, he was for a kind of rationalization of things and to say quite simply that one should not go too fast and that one should not do absolutely anything because it was quite irreversible afterwards. The world has changed, we totally agree, but I am not sure that even today, and all the more so today, a road development project can be a project for the future.. So no, that doesn’t make sense at all.
We hear the environmental arguments, but the Loirétains do not need this deviation? Look at the traffic jams today, on the old Jargeau bridge, on the D921.
Once again, it is not a question of opposing absolutely everything and of saying that there would be on the one hand those who suffer and on the other those who have other considerations which we do not see very well. what they correspond to. The reality is that I am not sure that this deviation will really relieve the congestion on the bridge, because it is not particularly heavy trucks that are in line. Of course, I am not denying that there are transport difficulties, but the real question is not so much that one. It is knowing the world we are going to leave and what we can do to do something useful.
You wrote a letter to Emmanuel Macron on this subject on the occasion of the pantheonization of your grandfather. You have a pantheonization answer.
No official response, but there is no difficulty in that. We alert us to things that are important to us and then there are answers where there are none.
Maurice Genevoix pantheonized last November 11, in a complicated context, behind closed doors, do we need a new tribute today?
I believe that the tribute that was paid on November 11 was quite sufficient, quite satisfactory. The symbols were present. So it is true that there was not all the public that we could have hoped for, but I believe that this ceremony made sense and to do it again today, in the end, would not have much. On the other hand, what we will continue to do is regularly perpetuate the memory by organizing a small memorial ceremony each year.
Perpetuating the memory is also the meaning of this space open to the Musée de la Marine de Loire, in Châteauneuf, a space that could not be inaugurated. It finally reopens with this deconfinement. Why is this exhibition important to you?
It is important because I am always happy that we are talking about Maurice Genevoix in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire. We have talked about it a lot, but I think it is important and it is quite revealing that the Musée de la Marine de Loire de Châteauneuf-Neuf continues to take an interest in this character, whereas we could have been to say good, the pantheonization is over, let’s not talk about it any more, but it is not at all the case. And it’s true that it was a very beautiful exhibition which had been prepared. I am very happy that she can finally be accessible.
–
