Heritage Days are traditionally an opportunity to visit places rarely open to the public. This is the case of the Senghor house in Verson in Normandy where the former Senegalese president lived the last 20 years of his life until 2001. When he died in 2019, his widow Mrs. Colette Senghor donated her house family, park and archives to the city, which is in charge of transforming it “into a poet’s house open to the public in memory of Léopold Sédar Senghor”. This will be done in a few years, once the necessary work and fittings have been carried out, in the meantime some 400 lucky people have been able to reserve visit slots during these Heritage Days.
It is a large 19th century bourgeois house with white shutters on the side of the road. Time has done its work and the whole is faded. The wisteria no longer brighten the facade. Once the gate is pushed and crossed the few steps of the perron, a bust of Léopold Sédar Senghor welcomes us in a small entrance, a bronze signed Arno Breker, and next to the cane of the former president of Senegal.
« Welcome to the Senghor house », Marie-Helene Brioul, deputy mayor in charge of communication, visits the house, owned by Mrs. Senghor and her family. “ On the left, a waiting room, Norman living room, French furniture, a pretty cartel, some copies of paintings on the wall “. Next door, the reception room called “de Betteville”, the birth name of Colette Senghor, because the coat of arms of the de Betteville family is displayed there. Daniel who would descend from one of the barons of William the Conqueror. The property had been acquired in 1850, a century later Colette inherited it from her aunt who hoped that the house would never leave the family.
The intimacy of the Senghor couple
In all the rooms, portraits of Philippe-Maguilen, their only son, who died at the age of 22 in a road accident in Senegal. The drama of the Senghor couple. On the walls, many photos with the greats of this world, sometimes become friends, like that of the couple with the Shah of Iran and his wife Farah Pahlavi as well as their respective sons.
Nathalie Donatin is the mayor of Verson, a town of 3,600 souls a few kilometers from Caen. ” The succession took two and a half years, the city has owned the park, the house, the furniture since July 7, 2022. and approximately 25 m3 of written archives, in accordance with the wishes of Colette Senghor “, the second wife of the politician. “ This legacy is an honor. The couple was very united and attached to Verson. They will have lived, each, 20 years in the country of the other. »
In a small lit window, on six shelves, a collection of stones from around the world, a passion of President Senghor.
The dining room is quite intimate, under the table a foot bell allowing you to call the kitchen staff ” sign that we are in a statesman’s house “says Marie-Hélène Brioul, “ all rooms are equipped with bells connected to a telephone in the kitchen “. Some African-inspired engravings, a painting representing the Prince de Joinville on the port of Gorée, the Senghor couple in ceremonial dress, photograph taken by Harcourt studios.
A staircase covered with a red velvet carpet leads to the first floor where 25 photos of the greats of this world welcome us, including an autographed photo of Queen Elisabeth II, a tracking shot in the 20th century.
On the left, Madame Senghor’s bedroom, some of her couture dresses are on display, on the walls are portraits of her husband and son. Right next to “Monsieur’s room”, his academician’s dress has taken place on a mannequin. On his sword, we can see the lyre which represents the arts, on a coat of arms the lion and the baobab of Senegal with a feather rolled up on the hilt crowned with a green star. On the bed, a loincloth with the effigy of King Juan Carlos and President Senghor. Mathilde Hopquin, director of cultural affairs, coordinates the Senghor de Verson project: “ It is a West African tradition, the creation of wax fabric on the occasion of official visits. We have found a fine collection of loincloths or figures of Mr. and Mrs. Senghor and heads of state, which might be a way of showing the history of the 20th century. century through the character of Léopold Sédar Senghor, and a popular textile object, the loincloth ».
During these Heritage Days, a visit to the bathroom with golden taps should put an end to a local legend according to which the taps were made of gold!
The large crucifix in front of the poet’s bed and the photographs of John XXIII and Paul VI testify to his faith; Léopold Sédar Senghor was a practicing Catholic.
Senghor’s lair
The highlight of the visit is the president’s office, preceded by a flowery lounge. Paintings, Marie Laurencin, an artist’s proof by Soulages, a lithograph signed Picasso…
In this house, the man of letters wrote a lot of poetry. From 1957, the couple spent all their summers there. The room is more formal than the rest of the house, in red and gold hues. In the office of the defender of “universal civilization”, Lenin rubs shoulders with de Gaulle, or JFK in their original version, Swedish poems, a German translation of great French poets, a huge fireplace, many books dedicated to his wife signed Sédar, the first name she gave him, her Serer first name.
« To my Colette, who is my poetry » or « to Colette, my wife, to my Princess of Beborg, beautiful even in her fury with the expression of my tenderness, November 20, 1976 “. Beborg being a Viking-sounding name invented by the poet to allude to the Norman origins of his wife. Placed on the desk, a small statuette of an Egyptian woman, on the mantle of the huge fireplace a carved antelope head, an ibis, and on a table the elegies of President Senghor, poems printed in large format on vellum paper illustrated by the greatest artists.
The house is extended by a small winter garden and a one and a half hectare park which should be opened to the public quickly, the house must be brought up to standard before it can receive the public continuously, a project which should take a few years.
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The Norman house of Léopold Sédar Senghor makes researchers dream
The archives that Verson inherited have been transferred to a hangar in Bretteville-sur-Odon, between Verson and Caen, and must still be the subject of a precise inventory. ” At the BNF, there is a Senghor collection of 629 sheets, but it is not at all complete. Senghor gave access to versions 2, 3, 4, but not to the first version of the texts, where he hesitated, groped and experimented “, explains to AFP Claire Riffard, of the CNRS.
The town hall has already come across a treasure, according to the researcher who visited the premises recently: in a closet, a large notebook with small squares, entitled Song for Naëtt, poems, found AFP on the spot. This handwritten document is priceless enthuses Jean-René Bourrel, who is preparing a Senghor dictionary to be published by Classiques Garnier. Senghor will rewrite this collection, initially intended for his first wife, who will become Nocturnes (1961).
« Here is a nugget. We can expect to find more adds Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a professor at Columbia University in the United States, who has met Senghor many times. Because ” Senghor elaborated his poetic work when he took his holidays in Normandy “, specifies the Senegalese philosopher.
This office also emanates the strength of a legendary friendship with the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, whose dedication: ” To Léopold Sédar Senghor, unknowingly co-author of this work in which he will find so many familiar echoes: those of our youth, our struggles and our common hopes, fraternally, Aimé Césaire. »