Madeleine Radet (née Lescuyer) was my maternal great-grandmother. She spent her entire life in Sézanne (Marne department (51), France).
She was the 5th generation descendant of the marquis Charles Louis Joseph de l’Escuyer d’Hagnicourt, who died during the French Revolution (here is my post about him).
I was told several cute stories and anecdotes about Madeleine. Here are three of them.
Les “Poires Madeleine” (the “Madeleine Pears”)
My great-grandfather, Marcel Radet, named the pears he was growing “Poires Madeleine” after her! How sweet is that?
My mother and her cousin Jacky always said that their grandparents Radet had a big garden.
In the evening, coming back from the optometrist factory where he worked, Marcel would take care of his garden. Among other things, he was growing cherry, apple, and pear trees. They would store all the apples in their attic, laying them on straw, and they would conserve them all winter! (Now, you buy apples on Monday, they start getting bad by Sunday… How is our food grown, I wonder?).
Here are Madeleine and Marcel in their huge garden (“Au fond du jardin”. Sézanne, France, 1941).
The trip to the butcher
In the mid-1930s, Madeleine would send my grandmother “Mamie Lu” to buy ground meat. When my grandmother would get home, the package would be empty! She would eat it all on her way home!
I learned that my great-grandmother Madeleine actually did this on purpose so that my grandmother could eat meat. Madeleine had lived through WWI (and would, a few years later, also live through WWII), and it took several years after WWI for the food to be fully available. “Children of the War” usually grew up with deficiencies. So Madeleine wanted to make sure her daughters ate plenty of good food. (Sorry, vegetarians… I just can’t see myself never eat a good steak again!)
Madeleine’s first radio (TSF)
My grandmother “Mamie Lu” used to tell me that she and my great-grandparents lived many years without electricity and running water in the house. They would go wash their laundry at the “lavoir” all year round, hands in very, very cold water (we have it so easy, today!!).
(Picture: women at the “lavoir” ca 1946).
They also lived without radio… until one day, someone gave Madeleine her first radio! It was about 1949. She would listen to a program on “Radio Luxembourg” (RTL, for Radio Television Luxembourg). The family would gather and listen to what is today such “a given”. But at that time, being able to listen to someone “speaking from a box” in your kitchen, offering different programs, information, and playing music, was a real treasure.
Jacky said that the radio program would start with a song, then a man saying: “Bonjour, amis fidèles, c’est Luxembourg !”.
Genealogy
Here are the links to several pages on my Geneanet tree related to individuals or events mentioned in this post: (FYI: on Geneanet, the little “green circle” on an individual’s image indicates my direct lineage with the individuals).
My great-grandparents: Madeleine Lescuyer (1899-1952) and Marcel Radet (1895-1960)
Their daughter, my grandmother: “Mamie Lu” (Lucienne Radet) (1922-2016)
Our ancestor: Charles Louis Joseph de l’Escuyer d’Hagnicourt (1741-1793) (his 4th wife is my ancestor: Marie Marc de Lamy de Bézange (1753-1833))
French revolution (1789-1799) (Révolution française)
World War I (1914-1918) (Première Guerre mondiale, or “Grande Guerre”)
World War II (1939-1945) (Seconde Guerre mondiale)
End of the Capital punishment in France (1981) (Abolition de la peine de mort en France)
My French Lineage 