I’ve always wanted to read Alphonse Daudet, Lettres du mon Moulin, but time to plod through it in French hasn’t materialized.  However, given the season, and coming across this compilation of Christmas stories in English translation, I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Place Royale, Paris – Augustus Pugin
~ source Wikimedia Commons

I just have to summarize the whole stories as they’re so good, so I’ll give a spoilers warning here.

A Christmas Supper in the Marais

Majesté is a manufacturer of seltzer-water and his warehouse is inside the former Hôtel de Nesmond in Paris.  Our good man hurries home from dinner with friends and enters his warehouse / home, imagining the old hotel in full swing with all its former prestigious guests.  And lo and behold, suddenly the old balconies light up and there is movement and carriages and a grand shuffling of guests as if it has never stopped.  Majesté is fortunate enough to view a slice of the past this Christmastime.

Mont Ventoux vu de la route de Carpentras à Bédoin. – Jules Laurens
~ source Wikimedia Commons

Three Low Masses

Reverend Dom Balaguère is poised to say the three masses at the chapel at Mount Ventoux.  Yet his clerk, Garrigou, has become the devil this Christmas Eve and he has put into the ear of our good chaplain tales of the food which will be served at the castle after the three masses: turkeys stuffed with truffles, juicy roast pheasants, succulent trout, excellent wine and much more. Dom Balaguère allows his greed to get the better of him and he cannot get the thoughts of food from his head.  Although his first mass is adequate, his second and third are rushed through at breakneck speed, much to the consternation of the attendees. And while the chaplain gorges at the dinner with relish, he dies that night of a spasm without repenting.  And his penance?  To say 300 masses before he is allowed into Paradise.  And so, in that now ruined chapel in Mount Ventoux, one can sometimes hear the ghost of Dom Balaguère saying those masses.

Painting of Schloss Waltershausen: his mother was from this castle’s owner’s family (1909) Wolfgang von Bibra ~ source Wikimedia Commons

Salvette and Bernadou

In a Bavarian town in 1870, everyone is celebrating, not only the birth of the Christ child but more the success of their warriors.  Even the Jews in the lower town are celebrating and the mercenary Jew, old Augustus Cahn, is up to his old ways, loaning and purchasing, especially from French prisoners at the military hospital.

The two prisoners in the hospital are Salvette and Bernadou, both from the same village, the same regiment and wounded at the same time.  The former is getting better but the latter appears not to wish to live.  Salvette gives up their last money to Cahn, the money he’s saved for escape, to buy some Christmas cheer for his friend, a Christmas log and some wine.  As they enjoy the feast, Bernadou requests a Provençal carol from home, “The Shepherds,” and as Salvette sings, “Shepherds, take your leave ….,” Bernadou takes his.  A very touching and poignant story, unfortunately with the stereotyped Jewish character.

The Three Christmas Masses

The same tale as story #2 except in a different translation.  I enjoyed this translation better.  The story came more alive.

Christmas Prayers (before 1912) Henry Bacon ~ source Wikimedia Commons

What a delightful short book of Christmas stories from Daudet.  My Latin carried me through some of the comments in the first tale and the story of Salvette and Bernadou brought back some wonderful memories of spending Christmas in Provence and their meaningful traditions.  I also thought that, with all the ghosts permeating the stories, these stories could double for Halloween as well.  But kidding aside, these tales were so well described and the characters so well-formed that I will definitely be excited immerse myself even further into Daudet’s craft!