Occitanie. This building is now a “House of the Illustrious” and can be visited

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The members of the regional heritage and architecture commission recently delivered their verdict. Three new places join the fairly firm circle of “Houses of the Illustrious” in Occitanie. The region now has 27 locations bearing this label whose vocation is to preserve and transmit the memory of the personalities who inhabited them.

There is one in the Tarnone in Aveyron and another in Hérault. In the Tarn, there were until now two places identified as such, the Château du Cayla in Andillac which housed the poet Maurice de Guérin and the Abbey-School of Sorèze (for the clergyman and politician Henri- Dominique Lacordaire).

An old farmhouse

And now the memory of Jean Jaurès is also honored in this way in the department. It's a decision that was expected. The mayor of Villefranche-d'AlbigeoisBruno Bousquet, among others, having fought to obtain this label for Bessoulet estate restored.

It is an old farmhouse of 400 m² (with a modern extension of 100 m²) surrounded byan enclosed, wooded park of 9,000 m².

François Hollande has just visited it

But above all, it is here that we can follow in the footsteps of the great orator. And in his privacy. It was there that he refined his great speeches in the National Assembly, sharpened his thinking, wrote his books and articles for La Dépêche du Midi or Humanity. An inspiring family refuge for one who was murdered 110 years ago and whose we will celebrate the centenary of the entry into the Pantheon on November 23, 2024.

Former President François Hollande visited there in September and the house, located on the edge of the RD74 towards Mouzieys-Theulet, can be visited.

Married to a Villefranchoise

The building belonged to the family of Jean Jaurès' wife, Villefranchise Marie-Louise Bois. The couple received it as a gift at their wedding in 1886. And it will become their rear base, his haven of peace far from the Parisian political arena.

This is where the prefect of Tarn will come knocking on the door on the 1st^is August 1914 to inform Marie-Louise of the death of her husband, murdered the day before at the Café du Croissant in Paris. There again paraded by the former Prime Minister and co-founder of the newspaper Humanity René Viviani, President Vincent Auriolthe President Alexandre Millerandthe president of the Council Léon Blum…

Transformed into a holiday center, then abandoned

After the assassination of the tireless defender of peace in 1914, and the death of her son Louis at the front in 1918, Marie-Louise kept the estate until her own death in 1931. Her daughter Madeleine inherited it. In 1950, it separated from it, handing it over to the Department.

In the deed of purchase of this “public utility” acquisition, it is stipulated that the house must become a museum. And host summer camps. The first promise will remain a dead letter. Not the second. A few years later, the house changed hands, purchased by two municipalities: Saint-Benoît-de-Carmaux and Carmaux. The years passed and the house became a vacation center. Before being abandoned. The careful restoration work was launched in 2022 and obtaining the label is a sort of culmination of this entire journey.

“The atmosphere and decor of the period were recreated in particular thanks to the financial investment of €110,000 from the Departmental Council, alongside the municipality of Villefranche-d'Albigeois,” recalls the Department.

Jean Jaurès is not just a place name…

“Most people I talk to don’t know who Jaurès is. For them, it's a street, a college, an avenue, a high school, the name of a room. My idea is that my constituents identify who our former constituent was,” had explained toOccitanie News Mayor Bruno Bousquet a year ago.

Jean Moulin and Valéry Giscard-d'Estaing

In addition to the memory of Jean Jaurès, the two other new Maisons des Illustres celebrate those of Jean Moulin (in Béziers in Hérault) and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (in Estaing, in Aveyron). Lozere is currently the only department in Occitanie not to have such a place.

To find all the Maisons des Illustres in Occitanie, click here. More practical information on the Domaine de Bessoulet, here.

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