Tatihou, Barfleur… Lucie Castets, a family story in the Val de Saire

For several weeks, the name Lucie Castets has been making headlines in French politics. At 37, the capital’s finance director is the candidate for the New Popular Front as Prime Minister. Born in Caen (Calvados), where her parents work in healthit also comes from the Saire Valley (Sleeve) on the side of his father, with some illustrious ancestors.

Jean and Germaine, the islanders of Tatihou

Jean and Germaine Delphy, Lucie Castets’ great-grandparents, living on Tatihou Island from 1914 to 1923.

Germaine, born The Sauvage in 1888 in Montaigu-la-Brisette, is the daughter of a public education officer. Following in her father’s footsteps, she obtains her teaching diploma in Caen. She will teach at Puteaux et Clamart, in Île-de-France, where she will collect an “honorable mention” by her hierarchy, then in Saint-Louis, Senegal, during the Second World War. She died in Barfleur in 1955 and was buried in Valognes.

From 1914 to 1923, she lived in Tatihou with her husband Jean and their two children.

Jean Delphy, born in 1887 in Noisy-le-Sec, in Île-de-France, has a little reputation among naturalists. He specialized in botany, zoology and geology and joined the world of natural history museums and maritime laboratories. Until 1923, he was Head of scientific works at the Tatihou Island Museumwhich he actually directs. A long stay that will inspire his thesis (Studies on the organization and development of thalassophilic limicolous earthwormsin other words marine worms), which he will take down with a “very honorable mention” in 1921. He then became a doctor of science and later taught at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris.

The Delphy family was not the only one to reside on the island at the time. In addition to the maritime laboratory installed by the Natural History Museum of Paris in 1887Tatihou also houses civilians interned from “enemy” countries during the First World War and soldiers.

This was also the time when polar explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot, “Commander Charcot”, was posted to Cherbourg and sailed on the Why Not? IV as part of his scientific missions. He will stop at Tatihou and meet the Delphys there.

When he published the notice of his scientific work in 1938, Jean Delphy wrote: “When Professors E. Perrier and R. Anthony did me the honour of offering me the succession of our late friend A.-E. Malard as deputy director of the Maritime Laboratory of the museum, then located on Tatihou Island in the English Channel, my first concern was to improve the knowledge that I had previously acquired of marine fauna and flora. […] For example, I sent algae to Professors L. Matruchot and C. Sauvageau and I considerably increased the zoological collections of the Laboratory. I was also able to introduce the rich fauna of the Baie de la Hougue to zoologists who were still unaware of it. I was continually led to carry out surveys in the most diverse facies of this privileged region, either for my own work or for that of others. ” He believes that his observations on “the variations in fauna caused by variations in climatic factors”, “then almost new to science”, as well as his publications, have “contributed to opening a path where interesting discoveries should be made”.

He died in 1961 in the Landes region.

Jeanne and Albert, the doctors of Barfleur

Jeanne Delphy, the daughter of Jean et Germaine, was born in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue in 1918. In 1947, she married Doctor Albert Castets, 21 years older than him, in Barfleur. They are the paternal grandparents of Lucie Castets.

“From that side,” explains a resident of Val de Saire who knew her as a child, They were a family of scientists. Madame Castets was much younger than her husband, who was a doctor. They shared their practice in Barfleur. They lived in a beautiful house on the port. It was in the 1940s and 1950s.. »

Among his childhood memories, two particularly come back to this resident. Bad memories! he jokes. Dr. Castets was doing the bites. He cured my whooping cough. And Madame Castets, she pulled my teeth. When you’re a kid, it leaves a mark! I also remember their children riding their bikes in the square. They were all wearing helmets. At the time, it was not common. “Among them, their eldest son, Lucie Castets’ father.

Albert Castets,born in 1896 in Tarbes in the Hautes-Pyrénées, is himself a hero of the Great War notably engaged in the colonial infantry corps. Student in medicine, He volunteered at the beginning of 1915 and began a military career marked by campaigns, combats and injuries.

An officer of a remarkable bravery and of admirable energy”, but also a leader of men who “imposed on everyone” “his courage and that’s it will “, “taking such influence over his men that he made them brave in his own image,” his military file indicates.

A graduate of the Saint-Cyr Order in 1920, he was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1938, the year he left the army after 23 years of service and 11 military campaigns.

In 1947, he married for the second time Jeanne, Miss Delphy from Tatihou Island.

Jeanne Castets has died in 2011 in Caen;Albert Castetsin 1992 in Meudon, in Île-de-France, then buried in Caen.

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