I have a photo that brings my four grandparents together...
Why this photo ? It is the one that represents what I am, this duality that is in me: the city vs the countryside.

My maternal grandparents lived in Paris. My grandfather, Georges DEVILLERS, is part of the fourth generation to settle in the capital and his wife, Berthe CARON, the second. My paternal grandparents were quite the opposite: they had always lived in the countryside !
The first descended from a family of merchants, printers, bookbinders, and company directors. Music was also part of his life: his paternal grandfather, of English origin, was a music teacher. On Berthe’s side, there were many teachers and musicians. On the DEVILLERS side, we could have been labelled with the adjective « bourgeois »…
My grandfather was a stage manager in a theatre, my grandmother a steno-typist.
My paternal grandparents were quite the opposite: they had always lived in the countryside! They are all winegrowers, rope makers, labourers, valets, cooks, housekeepers. The family spirit is rather work, the toil at work to earn and deserve one’s salary. I remember my grandmother, Marguerite, who washed dishes in a restaurant some time before Christmas so that she could have additional income from her retirement for Santa’s gifts. When I think about it today, we didn’t know this difficult side of life as children.
My parents both worked: my mother was an executive secretary, my father was a soldier and then an accountant. Compared to my childhood friends, we had a more than pleasant lifestyle, the comfort of everyday life. For example, I’ve always known the bathroom. When I talk to my friends today, I learn that they, at the same time, only had baths and showers once a week !
For school, I always had the necessary new equipment: nothing was too good! I was dressed fashionably, and I went on holiday all the time: Easter and All Saints’ Day, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. MASSELUS, in the Mayenne, in the summer, a month in a camp and three weeks with my parents.
I was only brought up in the city. The countryside was in Saint-Loup-du-Dorat or at my grandparents’ house in Vailly-sur-Aisne. I enjoyed going to the countryside: the fresh air, the fields, the freedom! Yes, the freedom not to have the nuisance of the city…
Mum was implacable in education: mastering music, therefore studying until the baccalaureate, and, above all, speaking English well, ancestry obliges. I didn’t know my maternal grandparents, but my mother never failed to take us to Paris. This is her greatest regret: never having returned to live in Paris after her marriage. My father absolutely did not want a big city: Sedan was enough for him!
So, when I look at those photos of my four grandparents, I see the meeting of two worlds without there being any embarrassment! My paternal grandfather was equal to himself with this cap and this fishing rod that never left him…

When we talk about genealogy, it is also our heritage of traditions and habits. I feel a real connection with these photos: I'm half urban and half rural...
La version française ? C’est ici…