Our home in Brittany - Gauguin's Loft - was once a hotel. I believe Gauguin once stayed here.
I've also been told that it was occupied by German soldiers in World War ll.
Excerpt from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Page 373, 374.
'On June 23 1942, there was a group of French Jews in a German prison, on Polish soil. The first person I took was close to the door, his mind racing, then reducing to pacing, then slowing down, slowing down ...
Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their French words. I watched their love-visions and freed them from their fear.
I took them all away, and if ever there was a time I needed distraction, this was it. In complete desolation, I looked at the world above. I watched the sky as it turned from silver to grey to the colour of rain. Even the clouds tried to look the other way.
Sometimes, I imagined how everything appeared above those clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.
They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.'
