Combray

“It had already been many years since, in Combray, everything that was not the theater and the drama of my bedtime no longer existed for me, when one winter day, as I was returning home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered to have me take a little tea, against my usual habit. I refused at first and, I don't know why, changed my mind. She sent for one of those short, plump cakes called Petites Madeleines which looked like they had been molded into the grooved valve of a scallop shell. »

Combray.

This name resonates in my heart with the pleasure I had visiting this charming town.

I was invited by a relative, just at the time when the Hawthorns were flowering...He introduced me to Combray but also, he introduced me to Proust's Madeleine! This Famous Madeleine that everyone is talking about...

My friend, certain of his success in making me taste it over tea, made me taste it after visiting Aunt Léonie's museum; to be sure not to miss a single “crumb” of my visit and to stay as long as possible in the atmosphere of this bourgeois house of the Amiot family.

At the first bite, I was really shocked. I found myself in my grandmother's kitchen when she was preparing madeleines for me. I found myself in the pages of La Recherche without understanding anything about what was happening inside me!

I was following, without knowing it, like a guide, the “Madeleine de Proust” experience described by Marcel!

It's incredible to what extent this subject of involuntary memory resists all stages of our lives, at all ages.

I became again that little girl that I miss, and that I was able to find again thanks to the magical power of the taste of this Proust madeleine.

Thanks to my friend for her hospitality, her generosity in taking me everywhere, to all these Proustian places in Illiers-Combray,

From the walk to the Citadel, passing through Aunt Léonie's House, ending in Uncle Amiot's very pleasant garden, the Pré Catelan, I got closer to Marcel Proust or Little Marcel I should say! With incredible pleasure.

And, I want to end this article, by naturally thanking these brilliant creators of Proust's Madeleine, to whom I owe this privileged moment, the return to my childhood.