The Cher Departmental Archives have gone through their own holdings to trace how the photographic portrait changed. The sequence runs from the Sand family, sat for Nadar, to the work of Marcelle Vatan, a photographer based at Sancerre. Individuals, families and groups face the lens, and what they wore and stood beside tells how people of Berry lived. Bourges holds it, inside the Bicentennial of Photography and the Year of George Sand.
Tag: social-history
Nous prendrons la mer avec nous, au Café Marylène
Maud Veith is a documentary photographer settled at Plougasnou, whose work follows women in situations of political or social strain. The Café Marylène has invited her to show the opening stage of a long photographic enquiry. « Nous prendrons la mer avec nous » gathers the accounts of women of the Breton coast on exile and the sea. Portraits hang beside written testimony, of crossings, mutual help, boredom, disappearances and miracles.
Au temps des baigneurs, dans les pas d’Alfred Delpierre
Saint-Quay-Portrieux was one of the first sea-bathing resorts on the north coast of Brittany, and the guide retraces how it came about. The walk follows Alfred Delpierre, who set the resort going and earned it the nickname « petit Monaco breton ». It leaves from the tourist office, which takes the bookings and needs four adults before a departure goes ahead. The office can cancel in rough weather, so the sea keeps the last word.
Entre fleuve et mer. Une histoire médiévale
Entre fleuve et mer follows water through medieval trade, river cities and daily life. Salt commerce on the Rhône provides a regional example, while Lyon’s Musée des Tissus lends boat-patterned silk and a lion-shaped vessel used for washing hands. A further section examines disease, including the spread of plague in Rhône-side cities, alongside art inspired by waterways.
From Brittany to French Guiana: A Literary Talk
Monique Blérald examines French Guiana’s carnival through literature and the figure of the Touloulou. These characters appear in street celebrations and masked balls, playing with disguise and social roles. President of the Observatoire du carnaval Guyanais, Blérald speaks in Vichy as part of the Bourbonnais literary programme Terr’HistoireS; admission is free.
Semaine gourmande: Parcours de la Mémoire
Claire leads a guided walk about refuge and resistance on the Vivarais-Lignon Plateau. The route includes the exhibition Images et Paroles de nos villages, which addresses refugees, the Righteous and Protestantism. A brioche and a hot drink supplied by La Jonquille bakery conclude this Semaine gourmande visit in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
Journée archéologique de la Drôme
Journée archéologique de la Drôme brings together researchers to discuss discoveries across the department. Talks examine domestic and funerary remains at Pierrelatte and the burial complex at Suze-la-Rousse. Valence’s Cardonnel site adds another view of settlement history. A medieval potters’ village near Romans-sur-Isère extends the programme into the region’s craft past.
Colloque « George Sand, la Républicaine »
The Comité du Cher des Amis de l’Humanité fills the Maison de la Culture in Bourges for a day on George Sand the political thinker. Her pages on la République, women’s rights, education and ecology are taken theme by theme and weighed against the present. Michelle Perrot, Marie-George Buffet, Jean-Christophe Rufin, Brigitte Krulic and Éric Lenoir speak, under Muriel Steinmetz, of L’Humanité. Admission to the salle Pina Bausch is free; book ahead.
Les vivants et les morts dans le Berry traditionnel
Jean-Pierre Surrault examines beliefs about the dead in the Berry of earlier times. The lecture asks how revenants, spells and souls from the beyond figured in that world. Halloween’s popularity provides the starting point for these questions. The speaker is a doctor of history and president of the Académie du Centre. The meeting in Le Blanc is organised by UIPB.
Touraine countryside: Bléré and Autrèche excavations
A lecture in Bléré examines the Touraine countryside in the Gallic and Roman periods. Jean-Marie Laruaz, an archaeologist, presents findings from preventive archaeology in Indre-et-Loire. Dozens of rural sites provide material for studying patterns of land use. Recent excavations at Bléré and Autrèche give two concrete examples, connecting the department’s archaeological research with the history of its countryside.