George Sand at Madingley…

and so were we all for the duration of a whole weekend.  We gathered in a cosy wood panelled room overlooking Madingley Hall's beautiful grounds shrouded in the autumn mist, reminiscent of a bygone time.

The setting was absolutely perfect for the theme of the weekend. The course took us back to provincial France in the middle of the XIXth century, in enchanting Nohant nestled in the heart of the  Berry where George Sand grew up, entertained the greatest of her contemporaries and where she died uttering her beautiful last words “ Laissez… verdure”.

Through photos, films, recordings of her correspondence, readings and various improvisations we managed to conjure up her presence… at least we felt, at times that we had managed to do so!  We learnt about her childhood in the Berry, her formative years in an English convent, the tragedies and the joys of a very tumultuous life, her relationship with her siblings,  her children, grandchildren, relationships with Musset, Chopin or Alexandre Manceau, her last love.
The participants were brilliant, imaginative, creative and full of mischief, but we were after all in Le Berry, the land of witchcraft and magic. So there were spooky stories in the mist and magical trees as beautiful as the ones George Sand planted to celebrate the birth of each of her children. There were lots of subtle remarks expressed, quite astute and profound analysis and criticism of her works made, comments on her lifestyle and the politics of the times.  We wrote and told stories in the style of "La mare au diable".
 
And from literary heights some switched to nonensical witticism. J. had us in stitches when she said that with a different hairstyle George Sand might have looked more beautiful and then we saw in the credits of the Saturday night film the name of her private hairdresser or was it that of the actress who played her part?   M. imagined that nowadays George Sand  would probably be staying up all night over her ipad consulting Facebook and Twitter.  What an entertaining and inspiring weekend that was! Thank you Madame George Sand!