James Joyce in Saint Gérand le Puy
James Joyce spent the last year of his life in a tiny village called Saint Gérand le Puy, north of Vichy in France. In 1939, he came to spend Christmas there with his grandson and ended up staying until the following December.
When Marion Byrne visited Saint Gérand le Puy about six years ago, she says, “It really dawned on me that this famous Irish writer had been here, walking these streets.”
Byrne, a molecular biologist who grew up in Ireland but now lives not far from Saint Gérand le Puy, started to do some research.
“It’s a fascinating story and I got very passionate about it,” she says.
She became deputy chairperson of James Joyce in Saint Gérand le Puy, and has been working to revitalise the association ever since.
Temporary exhibitions
James Joyce in Saint Gérand le Puy is a museum, small library, and exhibition space that celebrates Joyce’s life and work. Byrne has been working hard to bring the association to a wider audience. One way is temporary exhibitions.
“We need revolving exhibitions to get people to come back. We’ll have a new exhibition next year, but the current one is about how Joyce managed to escape from le Puy in the end, because it was like a thriller,” she explains.
The exhibition features work by various artists, including the Irish photographer Deirdre Brennan.
Local school involvement
For the Ulysses Centenary Celebration in 2022, Byrne collaborated with local school children in the town to make birthday cards for Joyce.
“A friend did the same in Trieste. The Joyce Centre in Dublin contributed drawings, then a school in Zurich, so there were 80 cards from children. A book was made for each of the children who had contributed by Badly Made Books, and the cards were displayed at Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris,” says Byrne.
Raising visibility
A new bronze statue of Joyce at the museum is another way to attract more visitors. Other ways they raise visibility are taking part in book fairs, and promoting their most well-established event Jour D'Ulysse, which takes place the weekend after Bloomsday every year. There are talks, live music, and performances.
Emigrant Support Programme funding will help to promote and organise these events, particularly Jour D’Ulysse, and will be key in keeping the organisation growing. Byrne has even trialled a Joyce-theme escape room.
Escape room
“A local tourist office in a nearby town is great at organising that kind of thing, so they created an escape room around Joyce. We tested it and it worked really well. I think it will attract a different population, maybe younger people and people with children,” she explains.
As the museum grows and new connections are made, projects take on a life of their own and Byrne is just trying to keep up.
“Things just start and then they grow organically. I let it happen!”