Fréhel, the Penn Sardines, Blanche Hoshedé-Monet, Marie Harel have in common to be from the West of France. We find these personalities from Brittany and Normandy in images or evoked by historians, relatives or journalists.
Eighty years ago, the Penn Sardines, workers in the canneries of Douarnenez, went on strike to obtain wage increases. The strike will be hard, it will block all the activity of Douarnenez for several weeks. Testimonies of two former workers: Euphrasie BERLIVET and Lucie KERGUELEN, Claude MICHEL, institute of social history CGT, and Michel MAZEAS, former mayor of Douarnenez.
An evocation of the life of Marguerite de Lorraine, who in 1492 became the first duchess of Alençon at the age of 30. Father Eric THEON evokes his struggle for tax exemptions and equality of justice.
Evocation of the life of Marie Harel, farmer and inventor of the camembert. Paulette THOMAS, Camembert Museum at Vimoutiers, explains how her fame became international, after an American praised the medical virtues of the camembert, in the 1920s.
Evocation of the poet Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, born in Honfleur in 1880. The writer André ALBERT-SOREL, who knew her as a child, remembers: "She was an impressive woman who always came with a certain majesty. She impressed me a lot".
Evocation of the life of Blanche Hoschedé Monet, beautiful daughter of the painter Claude Monet, and self-taught impressionist painter, as explained by Sophie FOURNY-DARGERE, curator of the Vernon museum. Nicknamed the Blue Angel by Clemenceau, Monet’s friend, she moved permanently to her father-in-law’s home in Giverny on the death of her husband, Jean, in 1914.
The singer Monique MORELLI and the historian ROMI evoke the great FREHEL. "There was no cheating in Fréhel, it was her strength," stresses Monique MORELLI. ROMI underlines the singer’s extreme beauty before she gains weight.