The Signature Touraine association, chaired by Hugues de Chivré, has more than a hundred authors and publishers from Touraine who write and publish books on the region. On Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 June 2024, the fourth edition of the book festival brought together fifty-five participants at the Chartreuse du Liget, its founder said. A growing workforce.
“We are victims of our success,” Hugues de Chivré emphasizes with obvious pleasure. “The authors are happy to be there, to meet each other and to meet the public.” Near the ruins of the old church, the circle of exhibitors had to be expanded within the walls of the cloister of this monastery.
Guided tours of the site
Under the central marquee, tables had been set up for Sunday lunch shared by the participants. The day before, in the afternoon, local personalities had made a detour to this exhibition. With his triple role as author, exhibitor and historian-guide, Christophe Meunier de Genillé led three tours. He took his audience into the world of this site, at the time of its splendor. Only people from Tours, specified Hugues de Chivré (1).
A photo exhibition on the liberation of Loches
Along with the publishers’ corner (L’Alchimiste, La Guépière by Jean-Louis Pierre, etc.) and historians’ corner (Pascal Dubrisay, Thierry Vivier and Sylvie Pouliquen, etc.), visitors could also enjoy a moving exhibition of photographs by René Deroche on the period of the liberation of Loches (1944 and 1945). The themes of the Resistance, the role that women played in it, and collaboration often came up in the conversations of this Sunday morning. “We must not assert anything until we have the documents. We must be very careful.”
Three silent witnesses to the past of the Liget charterhouse.
© Photo cor. NR, Michel Marteau
Fifty-five stands and as many writing themes and universes to discover. Which book(s) to buy and have signed? It’s hard to make a choice. The authors are available and answer all questions. That’s what they’re there for. It’s an extension of their passion for writing. “All these writersthis is the wealth of Touraine!” we heard.
(1) As of 2023, he has self-published eight books.
A monastery commissioned by Henry II of Plantagenet
> The construction of the Liget charterhouse, begun between 1188 and 1190, was commissioned by Henry II of Plantagenet, King of England and Count of Anjou, in atonement for the murder of Thomas Becket, Bishop of Canterbury.
> This is the same period as that of the Cistercian abbey of Beaugerais in Loché-sur Indrois (around 1150) and the Grandmont priory of Villiers (1160-1170) in Villeloin-Coulangé (1160-1170).
> This monastery depended on the abbey of Saint-Sauveur-de-Villeloin. In the Middle Ages, with the Corroirie and the chapel of Saint-Jean, it had 25 fathers and brothers living on more than 2,500 hectares.
