In the end Milcendeau returned here to paint the life of the peasants of these marshes -- complete in all its austerity and in all its beauty.  Jean Yole did much the same when he gave up his medical practice to write about life in full harmony with the earth and the soil.

Geographically they were brothers.  Politically, they were worlds apart.  Milcendeau was an ardent believer in path of the French Republic.  Jean Yole believed in an authentic union of man, soil, and spirit.  His alliance in 1940 with the Vichy government led to his destitution as a Nazi collaborator after WW II.  On Saturday, we will visit the island where the leader of Vichy, Marshal Pétain, was himself exiled after the war.