Illiers-Combray — The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Name Change

In 1971, by a decree of 29 March signed by the Minister of the Interior Raymond Marcellin, the small town of Illiers, in Eure-et-Loir, officially became Illiers-Combray. This gesture, unique in the history of French municipalities — the addition of a fictional name to the real name of a commune — was intended, at the time of the centenary of Marcel Proust's birth, to enshrine the indissoluble bond between the small town on the Loir and the imaginary village that beats at the heart of the Recherche du temps perdu. Fifty years after this event, the Société des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray set out to retrace this little-known history, paying tribute to the local figures who were its true architects.

Published in May 2021 and distributed free of charge to the residents of Illiers-Combray, this brochure brings together five original contributions written by members or friends of the association. Far from any conventional account, it traces four decades of Proustian passion, dogged persistence and quiet loyalty, restoring their rightful place to those who, working in the shadows, ensured that Combray would be more than merely a name from a novel.

Overview

On 29 June 1970, at a meeting of the Illiers town council, the resolution calling for the name change was read out and adopted unanimously bar one vote. Nine months later, the decree was signed and published in the Journal officiel of 7 April 1971: Illiers had become Illiers-Combray. This outcome crowned a long history, whose essential episodes the brochure retraces.

It recalls that the idea was not new: as early as 1948, Philibert-Louis Larcher, founder of the Société des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray, had put this request to the municipality, which had rejected it unanimously. For more than twenty years he pursued his campaign with remarkable tenacity, opening the Maison de tante Léonie to visitors, guiding hundreds of readers through the streets of the town, giving Proustian talks every Sunday, and turning Illiers into a living literary shrine.

It was with René Compère, elected mayor in 1965, that the convergence between the SAMP's ambitions and the will of the municipality became possible. A former headmaster of the Lycée Marcel Proust in Illiers, trained as a historian and a passionate philatelist — in 1966 he had secured the issue of a postage stamp bearing Proust's likeness — Compère shared with Larcher a deep attachment to the town and to the writer's work. Together, they carried forward a project that two generations of Islériens had seen come to life and fade away.

Illiers is one of the very few towns in the world to bear, in its own name, the mark of a literary work — alongside Ferney-Voltaire. This gives some measure of the ambition and originality of the act accomplished in 1971. The publication also reproduces an article from La République du Centre dated 8 April 1971, as well as the letter sent in July 1904 by Jeanne Proust to the mayor of Illiers, offering the town hall a photograph of Doctor Adrien Proust: a first official rapprochement, a distant foreshadowing of the transformation to come.

Authors and Contributors

Jérôme Bastianelli, president of the Société des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray, writes the foreword. He situates the event within its historical and cultural context, underlines the rarity of the phenomenon, and presents the brochure as a modest milestone in the long shared history between the town and the association.

Claire Saillant, granddaughter of René Compère, and her husband Bruno Saillant, together retrace the life and work of their forebear. Drawing on family archives, the SAMP's annual reports and first-hand testimony they gathered themselves, they portray a discreet man of unwavering devotion to duty, whose attachment to Illiers and to Proust's work unfolded over more than forty years, well beyond his terms in elected office.

Élyane Dezon-Jones, member of the Société's board of directors, pays tribute to Philibert-Louis Larcher drawing on her own experience as a visitor. She recalls the founder's incisive personality, his erudition, and his way of conjuring Combray out of Illiers through the sheer force of Proustian quotation.

Mohic Lavergne, a teacher born in Illiers, bears witness to the enduring bond between the town's built heritage and its literary heritage in the daily life of the community. She describes, among other things, the fiftieth-anniversary festivities, marked by processions in 1900s costume and public readings.

Didier Caffot, president of the Société dunoise, offers precious personal recollections of the summer of 1972, during which he met Philibert-Louis Larcher on several occasions in the final months of the founder's life.

Contents

• Foreword (Jérôme Bastianelli)
• René Compère, First Mayor of Illiers-Combray (Claire Saillant and Bruno Saillant)
• A Tribute to Philibert-Louis Larcher (Élyane Dezon-Jones)
• Illiers, Hyphen, Combray (Mohic Lavergne)
• Tribute to Philibert-Louis Larcher — Memories of the Summer of 1972 (Didier Caffot)
• In 1904, a First Rapprochement Between Illiers and the Proust Family (document)

Bibliographic Information

• Format: brochure
• ISBN: 978-2-492318-07-8
• Price: 5 €
• Publisher: Société des Amis de Marcel Proust et des Amis de Combray, Illiers-Combray
• Legal deposit: May 2021