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Mme "Gréville" and
Her Villa in St.
Symphorien,
Sister Denisa and the Little Sisters of the Poor
from "The Giant Scissors"
(no pictures at the moment, can you help?)
The villa, just beyond the old
French walled village of St. Symphorien,
across the Loire from Tours, was kept by a
Madame Chevrail (Gréville in the stories),
the wife of a retired professor. She took in
boarders, as Annie Fellows Johnston remembers how Mrs. Chevrail put it,
" to insure her the luxuries of life."
It was
while staying here in 1897, that Annie Fellows Johnston wrote "The
Gate of the Giant Scissors." Annie's real life description
of the house could have come right out of the story:
"The house was almost hidden behind
a high brick wall and a row of lime trees. The windows looked out on a
garden where chrysanthemums were in bloom. There was a maze in the garden
and a statue of Adam looked across at a statue of Eve. Also there were
enormous glass bells under which lettuce and other greens were growing."
This
house was near the Ciseaux estate with it's
distinctive gate and gables covered with similar medallions, owned
by a "peculiar" gentleman that was rarely in residence, all of which
gave AFJ the idea for her story. But much of the story also took
place at the Chevrail
(Gréville) Villa. One of the most memorable scenes is the
Christmas Party for Jules and the peasant children. In real life
the event was such a happy one that it became a whole chapter of her
book. It happened this way:
"I
asked Madame if she knew any children for whom we could
prepare a tree. I had in mind about ten, but Madame entered
into it so heartily that she invited a whole school of
thirty children to our Christmas celebration.
"For many days we were very busy
dressing dolls, making candy bags and shopping for toys. We had no popcorn.
Madame had never seen any, but she said if we had thought in time we could have ordered some from
Paris grocers. Monsieur gave us a lovely bough of mistletoe. It was covered
with waxen beads like pearls. At five o'clock the children began to come.
Gabriel [a servant] furnished the music on his accordion, and they all filed into the
room, thirty of them, after marching down the garden paths between rows of
blooming laurel. They stood around the room bewildered at first, for none of
them had ever seen such a sight before: a tree that glittered and sparkled
and shone, that bore stars and rainbows and gay toys. At first they only
drew deep wondering breaths and looked at each other with shining eyes..."
As for
the rest of the people and places of St. Symphorien and Tours, we're
still looking for information. Except we do know that
Sister Denisa de la
Providence
of the Little Sisters of the Poor was a real person, and the Little
Sisters had been in Tours since shortly after the founding of the order.
Sister Denisa had come from Cincinnati and had been in Tours for 14
years. Annie Fellows Johnston wrote of her:
She has such a happy face, as
if she finds some joy in her work of caring for the old
people. She took us first into the old men's hall. There
were two hundred of them. Most of them were playing cards.
Upstairs some of them were out on the gallery with their
pipes. They seemed so fond of Sister Denisa. She moved some
of them aside with a "Pardon, petit père." Upstairs
were the dormitories, fresh and clean, with patchwork quilts on the beds.
In the women's room the old people
were reading or gazing vacantly into space. Marquise, Countess, Baroness,
all were there. More than half the inmates had at one time been wealthy
people. One was sick in bed. She was eighty-nine years old. The tears
streamed down her face, not because she did not have the necessities of
life, but because she was herded with so many poor unfortunates, away from
home and kindred.
On the way home Madame
suggested another chapter for my "Gate of the Giant
Scissors" story. So did Sister Denisa.
This Site:
Home Page
What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows
Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete
Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The
Giant Scissors
Two Little
Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's
House Party
The Little Colonel's
Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel
at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: In Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero"
in Indiana::
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana), In Arizona:
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock, In Texas:
San Antonio,
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Penacres,
The Barnaby Ranch,
In France:
The Gate of the Giant Scissors
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
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