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Thank you, have good reading. Several people of my acquaintance having written a book recounting the memories of their childhood, I said to myself "why not me? I regret enough not to know much about my parents' childhood. I was born at Sampigny, in the Meuse, on November 7th, From my very early childhood in this village, I have no memory left. I want to say right away that I only knew my paternal grandmother, who was then living in Sampigny, my grandfather having died, I still do not know when.
On my mother's side, my grandparents lived in Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. I never saw my grandmother, as for my grandfather I saw him only twice, once during my first communion and once in during a trip to Alsace, but as he did not speak a word of French, I could never converse with him. She was the eldest of six children, she raised them in part, and at the age of 14, as her parents did not have much money, she was placed with an uncle, Louis Ducat who was a lawyer and justice of the peace in Bar-le-Duc.
It was from that time that she started breaking bridges. Only his sister Marie-Louise who worked in Paris visited us regularly. Mom when she arrived in "France" did not speak French at all, until Alsace was German and speaking our language was strictly forbidden.
She learned by reading a lot of books and especially those of Balzac. Everyone said she spoke well despite a slight Alsatian accent.
