Jean Gabin's son inaugurates an exhibition on his father in Eure

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Many visitors gathered around Mathias Moncorgé, to inaugurate the exhibition on his father Jean Gabin, secrets and legends of a giant, presented at the Maison des Barils (Eure).

Memories and anecdotes

Mathias Moncorgé is on familiar ground here. The Normandy that his father loved so much, indeed tells great pages of the history of the Moncorgé-Gabin family.

Many people came to meet him on Saturday evening during the opening to share memories and anecdotes with him, like this restaurateur who regularly welcomed him to the table of his establishment or this eaglet, a faithful friend of the family, or even the long-standing friendship established with the barilois Hubert Privé, through meetings at the famous bar-restaurant Le Dauphin in L'Aigle.

“Touched and surprised”

The emotion was palpable in the audience and for the actor's son.

I am still touched and surprised by my father's notoriety, which has remained intact forty-eight years after his death.

Gabin, legends and secrets here offers extracts from the major exhibition presented in Boulogne-Billancourt in 2023. Designed by members of the Moncorgé-Gabin family and the Society of Friends of Jean Gabin, it retraces the career and intimate life of the actor.

Family archives

There we find stills from filming, photographs of Gabin alongside Marlène Dietrich, Fernandel, Mistinguette and Jeanne Moreau and archives of his first career in the music hall, but also numerous photographs of his wife Dominique and their children, found in the family archives.

A childhood dream of the actor

We thus rediscover the incredible career and passions of this sacred monster of French cinema and the life of a warm and united family at La Pichonnière, “à la Piche” as Gabin said, a property in Normandy acquired and restored by the actor who thus realizes a childhood dream.

A true haven of peace, far from the limelight. “After his death, we were left to our own devices, there was no longer the shell that he had created so that his children could be peaceful” says Mathias Moncorgé in his book dedicated to his father, published by Éditions de la Martinière in the occasion of the Jean Gabin exhibition in Boulogne-Billancourt and which can now be visited at Les Barils.

Practical Exhibition at the Maison des Barrils. 5 rue de Verneuil. 27130 The Barrels. Until March 30, 2025. Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Free admission Group visits by reservation. Meeting/signings with Mathias Moncorgé on February 8, 2025. Information on 06 08 27 91 82.

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