After living in Nice, why is Alphonse Karr considered the “discoverer” of Saint-Raphaël?

“UVery sad news comes to us from Saint-Raphaël. Alphonse Karr has just passed away and his funeral will take place today.”

Upon the announcement of the death of the great writer (died September 30, 1890), eminent journalist and passionate gardener, the municipal council of Saint-Raphaël met on October 1, 1890, in an extraordinary session, to set the date of the funeral which will be given to him and a first posthumous tribute.

A funny house

After living in Nice, where he became known both for his writings and for his talents as a botanist, Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr came to settle in Saint-Raphaël in 1864.

In 1867, he bought land and buildings from La Fabrique, a small soap factory which closed its doors in 1830 located 1.5 kilometers from the village. He made it his home which he named “Maison Close”, thus marking his desire for isolation. “Private life must be walled off”he wrote.

It is a small artist’s house where fishing and navigation equipment are mixed, where books placed on the ground are intermingled and where, on the walls, portraits and various notes are displayed. He who liked to appear as an original had found his retreat here and described it with tenderness.

“The sea fell at my feet, breathing to the rhythm of its white waves against a sapphire background. They slowly broke and vanished, barely separated from my home by the Chemin des Douaniers lined with myrtles. The richness of the land was due to the springs that I discovered while digging. I had the sun and the water for nothing (…) My garden would provide me with fruits, vegetables and flowers!”

He creates a vast garden around the house, where he grows flowers of varied shapes and colors, tropical trees and shrubs. Chickens, ducks, peacocks, pigeons and dogs roam around the house. “Here everything grows and lives freely”, he said.

He had placed a plaque with “Maison Close” engraved on the door. “This little tin plate was going to protect my incognito in the obscure country where I had decided to end my life.”

Everyone’s tribute

Ill for several days with chest inflammation, Alphonse Karr died in 1890 at the age of 81 in his “Maison Close”. Jeanne, her natural daughter, her son-in-law Léon, and her grandchildren, are at these sides.

Poignant inauguration for the town’s new cemetery to which the town would later give its name. In his speech, Félix Martin, mayor of Saint-Raphaël, paid tribute to one of the city’s most emblematic figures.

Then his friend Jean Aicard will recall that princes, illustrious visitors as well as fishermen and gardeners came to knock on his door, open to all. The writer-gardener has passed away, but Saint-Raphaël will always remember him, so much so that the day after his death, Jean Aicard launched a subscription for a stele to be built in memory of his friend. .

For the record, the first bronze bust of the writer, the work of Louis Maubert, disappeared during the war and only the porphyry block still remains on the seaside. Alphonse Karr, rests today under a megalith reminiscent of to a tree trunk.