Templeuve is known for its cobblestones which make Paris-Roubaix runners sweat. But it is on another stone that Carine Bausière builds her third novel: that of witches. Few of the inhabitants know that it is exhibited in the garden of the presbytery. It is on this large pebble that Marie Navart, a Templeuvoise, was burned in 1656.
But it has just been stolen: it is the start of the plot of this thriller intended for children and which reads like a tale. ” I wrote it during the first confinement, for my nephews », Says Carine Bausière. Arthur and Zoé, 10 and 12 years old, are leading the investigation, an excuse to visit the high places of local gastronomy (the kebab in the square, the Frites Barque…) but above all to discover the Templeuvois heritage.
Victim of intolerance and lust
Carine Bausière takes us back in time to Marie Navart, put to death by intolerance and lust, we stroll around the Vertain mill, revive the campsite which preexisted the hypermarket and summon the camels of a circus who had lived a few weeks in the plain… The story will make all generations smile because it is full of anecdotes, all true .
Every day an old customer would push open the door of the old cafe and sit in his living room
The author thus invented the character of Papy Mousse after a conversation with an elected… villeneuvoise who had bought an old café. “
And every day an old customer would push open the door and sit in his living room. Incredible, right? »
I have to say that Carine Bausière drew on her profession as a journalist in our editorial staff in Villeneuve-d’Ascq to write his novel. The heroine, auntie Émilie, her alter ego, turns out to be very much in the verification of sources. But beware, the reality is romanticized and without controversy: the mayor is a woman with a witch’s name, Arnoulette. And if, in his portrait gallery, we recognize a few Templeuvois, the villain is just a villain.
As his cat was lazing by his side when Carine Bausière was writing, he was sucked into the story. Black and tailless, Maki is a witch cat who guides young detectives to the truth. A thriller about local history, tolerance and ecology, to be put in everyone’s hands.
“The Witch’s Treasure” (10 €), at Amanita edition, available in bookstores. Author’s signing session this Saturday, March 6 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Entre les lines media library, rue Grande Campagne in Templeuve-en-Pévèle.
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