On the footsteps of these writers,
Normans by birth or in their hearts.
I am not sure who, amongst Pierre Corneille, Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo or Maurice Leblanc, deserves more to be at the top of this list which cannot be exhaustive. Let’s then go by alphabetical order.
Pierre Corneille
Is it really necessary to introduce the one who was perhaps the greatest dramatist of all times? Two of the houses in which he lived have been turned into museums: one in Rouen where he was born, l'autre, à Petit-Couronne , very close to Rouen, where he is believed to have composed his most famous tragedy: Le Cid".
Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary, Salammbô, Bouvard and Pécuchet
ou encore le Dictionnary of Received Ideas you probably know all of them!
The most famous works of the great Gustave Flaubert, the champion of French language! Several museums recall his life and his work:
The
Pavillon Flaubert in Canteleu: house where he lived for 35 years.
The
Museum Flaubert and the History of Medicine in Rouen, is located in an 18th Century mansion, in which was born the young Gustave, son of a surgeon working at the Hôtel-Dieu.
The
Gallery Bovary is situated in Ry, lovely Norman village and scene of the events which inspired to Flaubert its famous novel Madame Bovary.
Victor Hugo
"‘Demain dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la champagne…’
(At dawn tomorrow, when the land glows white…). French people all know this verse and the following ones.
Hugo the Great, Hugo the Magnificent, Hugo the wonderful French poet retraced the journey he goes through every year to bloom the grave of his daughter Léopoldine, who drowned in the Seine, in Villequier.
The Victor Hugo Museum is situated in Villequier, by the Seine, in the former property Vacquerie, married name of the unfortunate Léopoldine. It evokes the work of Victor Hugo.
Maurice Leblanc
Who doesn’t know Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief? Arsène Lupin is the work of Maurice Leblanc, a native of Etretat, the emblematic city of the Côte d’Albâtre.