The Massigoux cemetery houses the graves of great Cantalian names who left to make their reputations elsewhere. They chose to rest in Aurillac.
On this sunny All Saints' Day, Wednesday October 31, the paths of the Massigoux cemetery witness the waltz of people who have come to decorate the family graves with flowers. Christophe Prunet, curator of the cemetery for more than thirty years, is in demand from all sides: “Today it’s a rush…”
Among the hundreds of tombs, among all the names inscribed on the marble plaques, some are known to the general public. Looking down, you can read “Family Vidal-Mondor” on a vault. This is where Henri Mondor rests.
The former war doctor who became a surgeon was born in 1885 in Saint-Cernin. In 1928, he published his book Urgent Diagnoses of the Abdomen. It became one of the most widely read and distributed scientific works of the 20th century in the world. Henri Mondor died in 1962. His name is given to the Aurillac hospital center and the Créteil University Hospital.
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A little further down, we find the tomb of Mary and Émile Duclaux. This physicist, biologist and chemist born in 1840 in Aurillac, was the disciple of Louis Pasteur. He succeeds the latter at the head of the institute of the same name. Émile Duclaux is also one of the founders of the league for the defense of human and citizen rights. He died in 1904 and gave his name to a high school in Aurillac. He rests next to his wife, a writer and translator of British origin.
Mondor, Duclaux, Charmes…
They were born in Aurillac, but are buried elsewhere. The former President of the Republic Paul Doumer was born in Aurillac. President of the Senate in 1927, he moved to the Élysée for ten months in 1931. Paul Doumer died in 1932 and rested in the Paris region, in Vaugirard. His birthplace is marked with a plaque, in Aurillac. It is located… rue Paul-Doumer. The aviator Marie Marvingt, born in Aurillac, was an aviation pioneer, inventor of the ambulance plane and recognized for her innovations during the First World War. She left Cantal very young, and was buried in Nancy. Alexis Delzons, born in Aurillac in 1775, was a general of the Empire. Died in 1812 during the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, he was buried on the battlefield.
A plaque, in black marble, “added ten years ago”, according to Christophe Prunet, marks the grave of a former general of the Napoleonic Empire: Jean-Baptiste Milhaud, born in 1766 in Arpajon-sur-Cère. He led a corps of cuirassiers at the Battle of Waterloo and is considered one of Napoleon's best cavalry generals. He died in 1833.
The Charmes brothers were born at the Château de Baradel in Aurillac. The first, Francis, was political director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Xavier was at the Ministry of Education and had Guy de Maupassant as a student. The last, Gabriel, was a journalist and explorer. The siblings gave their name to a street in Aurillac and rest in Massigoux.
Mathis Lagrange
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