Patrick Modiano - The Occupation Trilogy - La Place de l'Étoile – The Night Watch – Ring Roads

Just now, as we were getting into the van, they gave us a bit of a beating. Our faces must look pretty comical. Like those two clowns that time at the Cirque Medrano . .

Surely one of the prettiest and most idyllically situated villages in Seine-et-Marne: on the fringes of the Forest of Fontainebleau. In the last century, it was the refuge of a group of painters. These days, tourists regularly visit and a number of Parisians have country houses here.

At the end of the main street, l’auberge du Clos-Foucré, built in the Anglo-Norman style. An air of propriety and rustic simplicity. Distinguished clientele. Towards midnight, you may find yourself alone with the barman clearing away bottles and emptying ashtrays. His name is Grève. He has worked here for thirty years. He is a man of few words, but if he takes a shine to you and you offer him a plum brandy from Meuse, he is prepared to recall certain memories. Oh, yes, he knew the people I mentioned. But how can a young man like me have heard of these people? ‘Oh, you know. .’ He empties the ashtrays into a square tin. Yes, that little gang used to come to the auberge a long time ago. Maud Gallas, Sylviane Quimphe. . he wonders what became of them. With women like that, you never know. He even has a photo. Look, the tall thin one there is Murraille. A magazine editor. Firing squad. The other one, behind him, who’s sticking out his chest and holding an orchid between his finger and thumb: Guy de Marcheret, known as Monsieur le Comte, used to be in the Legion. Maybe he went back to the colonies. Oh, that’s right, they are not around any more. . The fat one, sitting in the armchair, in front of them, he disappeared one day. ‘Baron’ something or other. .

He has seen dozens like them, propped at the bar, dreaming, who vanished later. Impossible to remember all the faces. After all. . sure. . if I want the photo, I can have it. But I’m so young, he says, I’d be better off thinking about the future.

Léon Rabatête:a thinly-disguised parody of Lucien Rebatet (1903–1972), a French author, journalist, and intellectual; an exponent of fascism and virulent anti-Semite.

Ferdinand Bardamu:a character in Céline’s Voyage au bout de la Nuit . Modiano calls him Doctor Louis-Ferdinand Bardamu, echoing Céline’s title and first names. The first pages of the novel are a parody of the anti-Semitic tracts Céline wrote and published.

Stay strong, Madelon:a reference to the popular French WWI song ‘La Madelon’ (aka ‘Quand Madelon’) about an innkeeper’s daughter who flirts with everyone but sleeps with no one.

Cahen d’Anvers:Louis Raphaël Cahen d’Anvers (1837–1922), French banker, scion of two wealthy Jewish banking families.

I was compared to Barnabooth:a reference to the title character in Valery Larbaud’s novel The Diary of A.O. Barnabooth whose story mirrors that of our hero’s ‘Venezuelan inheritance’.

‘Laversine’ … ‘Porfirio Rubirosa’: all references to the polo. Porfirio Rubirosa was a famous Dominican polo player; Cibao-La Pampa, the team he founded; the Coupe Laversine is a celebrated tournament; Silver Leys is a polo club in the UK.

three photos taken by Lipnitzki:Boris Lipnitzky (1887–1971), famous Ukrainian — French photographer.

Jean-François Des Essarts:the name deliberately echoes that of Jean des Esseintes in Huysmans’ novel À Rebours . Modiano’s character is based on Roger Nimier, the founder of the literary movement ‘les Hussards’.

The Finaly Affair:Robert and Gérald Finally, two Jewish children born in Vichy France, were taken in by a member of the Catholic network when their parents were arrested. After the war, the woman refused to return the orphaned children, whose parents had died in the camps and illicitly had the children baptised in 1948. A national scandal ensued, which involved Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier and Abbé Roger Etchegaray. The children were finally reunited with Jewish relatives in Israel in 1953.

francisques: ‘double-bladed fasces’ — the fascist emblem of the Vichy regime.

PPF:Parti Populaire Française, a French fascist and Nazi political party led by Jacques Doriot before and during the Second World War.

‘Saint Jacob X: Actor and Martyr’:a reference to Jean-Paul Sartre’s Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr .

‘La Casquette du père Bugeaud’:a French military song.

Maurice Sachs (1906–45):(born Maurice Ettinghausen) French writer. The son of a Jewish family of jewellers, he converted to Catholicism in 1925. During the war, he extorted money from Jews to help them flee the Unoccupied Zone and may have been a Gestapo informer. He was later imprisoned and died during the long march from Fuhlsbüttel prison in 1945.

Lola Montès:the title of a Max Ophüls film which was based loosely on the life of the nineteenth-century dancer Lola Montez.

Le Boeuf sur le Toit:a famous Parisian nightclub.

Drieu la Rochelle (1893–1945):French novelist and essayist, la Rochelle was a leading proponent of French fascism in the 1930s, and a collaborationist during the Nazi occupation. After the liberation of Paris in 1944, he went into hiding and committed suicide later that year.

Night and fog:a reference to Nuit et Brouillard, the 1955 French holocaust documentary by Alain Resnais.

Brasillach:Robert Brasillach (1909–45), French journalist and editor of the fascist newspaper Je suis partout . He was executed as a collaborator in 1945.

Hitler Youth Quex:a 1932 Nazi propaganda novel ( Hitlerjunge Quex ) based on the life of Herbert ‘Quex’ Norkus.

André Bellessort (1866–1942):French writer and poet.

This, then, was our youth … regained:a quote from Claude Jamet’s memoir of Brasillach before the war.

Julien Benda: (1867–1956):French philosopher and novelist, author of The Betrayal of the Intellectuals .

Maurras:Charles Maurras (1868–1952), a French author and poet, he was the principal thinker behind Action Française , a supporter of Vichy, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Je suis partout: ( I am everywhere ) a right wing anti-Semitic French newspaper founded by Jean Fayard in 1930. It supported the Nazis during the occupation and, during the war, was edited by Robert Brasillach.

P.-A. Cousteau:Pierre-Antoine Cousteau (1906–58), French far right journalist and contributor to Je suis partout .

Pujo:Maurice Pujo (1872–1955), French journalist and co-founder of the Comité d’Action Française which later became Action française .

Maxime Real del Sarte (1888–1954):French sculptor and political activist involved with the right-wing Action française .

Jean Luchaire (1901–46):French journalist and politician, later head of the French collaborationist press during the Nazi occupation. He was executed for collaborationism in 1946.

Carlingue:the informal name for the French Gestapo, which was headquartered on the Rue Lauriston.

Brinon: Fernand de Brinon (1884–1947),French lawyer and journalist, he was among the principal architects of French collaboration with the Nazis. He was found guilty of war crimes in 1947 and executed.