The Tiger

Until last night the name Clemenceau was for me connected to a French aircraft carrier by the same name. I presumed that this ship was named after some old minister or general, but then I discovered the website of the Museum Clemenceau (link), and a new world opened up to me.

Georges Clemenceau, nicknamed the Tiger, was a doctor, a journalist, a translator, a teacher, an art lover, a politician and much more. He was a close friend of Monet and spent much time in Giverny. When his newspaper "L'Homme Libre" became subject to censorship, he renamed it "L'Homme enchainé" [libre means free, enchainé means chained]. He was also a defender of Dreyfuss and got the idea of the title "J'accuse" to the article written by Emile Zola in defence of Dreyfuss. Aparently he did more than 50 duels, but the guns were so bad that rarely anybody got injured. However, once Clemenceau did shoot somebody in the thigh and had to go to prison for 2 weeks or so, I believe. He was in charge of the police as an interior minister, and this is how he got his nickname. As a defence minister during WW1 he visited the trenches and signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

He left France for New York in 1865 because of heartache and returned permanently in 1869 with an American wife. They quickly had three children despite the fact that the wife was left with her in-laws in Vendée, whilst Clemenceau had fun in Paris. When the wife dared have some fun, too, Clemenceau apparently pulled her in court where she was sentenced to 15 days of prison and then prohibted from French soil! The marriage finally ended in divorce in 1892 (divorce had become legalised in 1884).

In 1895 Clemenceau moved into a rented flat in rue Benjamin Franklin (16th arr) where he lived until he died in 1929. It was quickly decided to turn the flat into a museum, wherefore everything was left as it was on the day Clemenceau died. It was in the flat and the flat above that I walked around today learning more about the Tiger.

In the exhibition on the first floor there were objects with a connection to Clemenceau: the coat he wore when he walked in the trenches during WW1, a picture covered by the glass of the car window - with two bullet holes - where he sat when an anarchist tried to kill him in 1919, his gun used for duelling, books he had translated and written, articles and newspapers he had published, photos, drawings and much, much more.

In his flat on the groundfloor I walked through the dining room, the office, the bathroom, the library and the bedroom. There were books about Greek philosophy, a small Buddha, Japanese stuff, walking sticks, paintings by more or less famous painters, his tooth brush and shaving gear, the diary left on 24 November 1929, his worn-out slippers, etc. I did not see the toilet nor the kitchen but I think that the flat gave a pretty good impression of the way Clemenceau lived in his later years. How weird to freeze in time a life as if the clocks had stopped on that day in 1929!