Valazé’s Daughter Recollecting Girondins As She Remembered Them In Her Childhood

Valazé’s daughter recollecting Girondins as she remembered them in her childhood

Vatel, working on his “Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins”, was looking for someone who could evaluate the reliability of portraits of Barbaroux. Madame Letellier-Valazé offered her help. She was then eighty-one years old. In 1793 she was eight. She not only gave her opinion on various portraits but also shared some memories she still possessed.

“My father lived on Rue d’Orléans Saint-Honoré, 19. Every day several colleagues of him gathered in his house. I remember that Guadet, Gensonné and Barbaroux used to come most often. Sometimes came Louvet, as well as Pétion and Gorsas*.

Guadet leaned his head a bit to the shoulder.

Gensonné seemed to be the oldest. He had very thick hair.

Barbaroux was beautiful, excessively beautiful, superb. His colleagues liked to joke about this beauty. He was very lively, very joyful, very good. He loved to play with me, he took me into the living room, where his colleagues met and sat me on his lap if my father wanted to send me away.

He was very dark, with black hair, large eyes also black and very beautiful, very bright. He had well-defined lips, beautiful teeth, fine, delicate features, brown complexion, his beard was so black that if he had just shaved, his cheeks were blue. He was strong.

Madame Roland didn’t come to the meetings, but once she was forced to hid and did so at ours. It had a great effect on the house. I can still hear her walking in the living room and talking, rising her hands in the air.

Madame Pétion came almost every evening with her daughter, who was a charming young person.

Louvet sometimes brought his wife, but she never took part in political discussions.

Madame Roland spent with us only those tree days.

Louvet had a pretty face, an effeminate one, with which he painted himself.”

* – Valazé during his interrogation named Lacaze, Bergoin, Duprat, Buzot, Barbaroux, Sage, Brissot, Gensonné, Guadet, Molleveau, Hardy, Duperret, Salle, Chambon, Lidon and others (Vatel).

Vatel, Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins, Vol. 2, p. 399-402

The thought deserves a better bost, but i'm too melancholy now to prevent myself from scetching it. The description above makes me wonder how much a "found family" conception fits Girondins. A very extended family actualy, in which its members not necessarily know each other well or like each other, but still inevitably connected. Aulard once wrote about Vergniaud-Ducos-Fonfrede relationship "Vergniaud is a family" and it's the best description I've ever found. What makes girondin a girondin is a good question. A good answer is that there were no girondins (sorry Aulard, i'm oversimplifing you here), but I don't like it. And something enchanting exists in that very salons at Valazé's or Pétion's.