French author Colette has been a household name in France for more than a hundred years. Sidone-Gabrielle Colette was born on January 28, 1873 in the Burgundy region to Captain Jules-Joseph Colette and Adele “Sido”..
One day her father's old friend Henri Gauther-Villars “Willy” would stop by for a visit and return many times to visit the young Colette. Fourteen years older, he would take her to visit Paris showing her the theater, parties and the glitz and glamour of the city of lights. On May 15, 1893 they would marry and move to Paris. Colette was in a hurry to get away from her overbearing mother but things would not turn out how she hoped.
After a visit in 1895 to her former school in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye Willy encouraged her to write down some of her stories from her school girl days. Willy was a music critic and writer, or he at least took credit for others writing as his own. Colette wrote the book and Willy tossed it into a drawer for four years. One day he found it and read it again but asked her to spice it up a bit. Colette did just that and in 1900 it would be published under Willy’s name only as Claudine at School. It was an immediate hit and Colette was forced to write another one. She didn’t like the writing process, so Wily would lock her in a room to write each day. In 1901 Claudine in Paris debuted.
Willy was fast to capitalize on the success and had a stage adaptation created that would premier at the Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens with the young actress Polaire starring as Claudine with her short dark hair. Colette cut her hair short too and Willy would parade around Paris, basking in his literary glory with his “twins” at his side. He would let people know that Colette partially inspired his books “he wrote”.
Colette would go on to write two more, Claudine Married in 1902 and Claudine and Annie in 1903. By 1906 they separated, without any rights to her semi-autobiographical series of books.
After the separation, Colette trained to be a mime and one night on stage she would kiss Missy de Morny a woman who she was involved with shocking all of Paris. Remarried again in 1912 to Henri de Jouvenal, editor of Le Matin, they would have a daughter she would name Colette, but would spend very little time with.
All of her writing was woven with the themes and stories of her life and her book Cheri was no exception. After her marriage with Henri was going downhill she picked up with her stepson Bertrand. The older woman and the much younger man relationship would head straight to her pages. In 1925 she met Maurice Goudeket and they would have the most stable relationship of her life.
Colette had lived in many places in Paris but her favorite was her home in the Palais Royal. In an article she mentioned how much she missed her former home, a few days later the current owner contacted her and asked if she would like it back.
Colette would look out her window everyday as she wrote into the garden of the Palais Royal, hearing the gardeners rakes scraping up the leaves and the birds singing. She and Maurice would live out the rest of her life here, being treated to the wonderful meals from Raymond Oliver chef and owner of Le Grand Véfour and popping bottles of Pommery champagne.
Colette would die on August 3 1954 in her beloved home in the Palais Royale. Denied a Catholic funeral due to her multiple divorces she would be the first female writer to be given a state funeral. More than 10,000 people paid their respects and a funeral was held in the courtyard and garden of the Palais Royal. She is buried in Père-Lachaise today with her daughter.
Listen to her whole story with many more twists and turns on the newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway.
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