Maigret of the Month: Mon Ami Maigret

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Maigret of the Month: Mon Ami Maigret (My Friend Maigret)
7/17/06 –

[translation]
1. Maigret and the sea
My Friend Maigret is one of the novels in which the Commissioner discovers – or rediscovers – the sea, with which he has a particular enough rapport for a landsman, one of both wonder and apprehension. We would do better to speak of the Maigret's seas, because he has a very different relation with the liquid element depending on whether it is a northern sea, nearly always described by Simenon in the cold and windy atmosphere of the end of summer, or a southern one, evoking summer heat and laziness.
Maigret's first confrontation with the sea takes place very early in the series – already in LET, in Chapter 16, when Simenon evokes the dramatic meeting of Pietr and Maigret at Fécamp, a city he will return to in REN. He will return again to the English Channel in POR (Ouistreham, where Maigret is literally bewitched by the misty atmosphere of the harbor), in DAM (Etretat in autumn), in man (where there is a storm, obviously!), and he will fly over it in REV to go to London.
The Atlantic is present in JAU (Concarneau), in JUG (L'Aiguillon, where Maigret hastens to surrender to the first opportunity to escape to the marshes of the Vendée), in NEW (Maigret crosses the ocean to visit America, and clear up a storm, of course!), in VAC (Sables-d'Olonne, where, for once, Maigret sees the Atlantic in summer... but the weather is going to quickly turn bad with the dramatization of the intrigue), in ECO (close to La Rochelle, where Maigret lets himself be dragged into an investigation (lured by a maritime whiff of oysters that he won't get to eat, alas! and of white wine). He will make a fast passage again to La Baule (SEU), just enough time to catch a magnificent sunburn! The North Sea is evoked in HOL.
The Mediterranean, Maigret meets for the first time in LIB (Antibes). Immediately, the climate awakens for him an atmosphere of vacations. Maigret, dazzled by the heat and the vibrant colors ("The sea was red and blue, shading through orange..."), will have difficulty getting to work. He will recover the same sensation of laziness in owe (Cannes) and will have just enough time to breathe the odor of mimosas during a brief passage to Cannes in MAJ, while he will be able to see the "silver wake" of a sailboat, before counting the seconds between the flux and the ebb of a "lazy sea" in Nice (VOY). He will pass again to Toulon, to discover a "sea of the same blue as postcards" (FOL) and to Bandol where the sea is "the blue of a flag" (IND) .
But it is especially the memory of his investigation at Antibes (LIB) that haunts Maigret when he decides to go to Porquerolles. And there, again, he rediscovers "with a little dizziness, the bottom of the sea ... some ten meters deep, but with water so clear that you could distinguish the least details" – greenery and aquatic rocks, schools of fishes... Maigret sets off to prowl the harbor, irresistibly attracted by the spectacle of the sea, which he prefers to discover from the shore, not being a swimmer and not feeling the desire to paddle in this liquid, in contrast to his English colleague, obviously! For Maigret, it is not the tactile "contact" with the water that he looks for, but a visual contact that he establishes with the sea, to the dazzling... "The sea was so smooth, so luminous that, when you had fixed on it a long time, for a moment you could no longer distinguish the contours of objects...." (Ch.6) A symphony of colors, in contrast with the rainy dullness of Paris – "The sea was an incredible blue..., an island... with very green hills, red and yellow rocks... At the base, the red roofs, the white and pink houses..., at the summit, the small yellow church with the white bell-tower." (Ch.1).
2. Maigret and the South
In Porquerolles, Maigret will recover the sensation of laziness that he had had in Antibes (LIB), and that, perhaps, he had come back to unconsciously look for. The heat, odors, everything that evokes the South of France is for him synonymous with leisure and idleness ("A world all sticky with the sun, the odors of mimosas and sugary flowers…" cf. LIB, Ch.1), a dangerous sensation when you are there to work and to make an investigation! Maigret knows this well, as he says it in his conversation with Mr. Pyke,
"I did an investigation, previously, at Antibes and Cannes, and I especially remember an oppressive heat and a desire to sleep that didn't leave me."
"You don't like the Mediterranean?"
"In principle, I don't like places where I lose the taste for work.…"
And yet, it is going to be hard to resist the temptation of "porquerollitis" – everything on the island is made to invite indolence... "palms… frozen in the Saharan sun," perfume-sweetened with mimosas and the odor of eucalyptus, the patron's white wine, the bouillabaisse, the sound of the bells on Sunday (chap.8), and the sea "that was clothed in golden satin and pearls, where every oar-stroke sparkled in the sun."
3. Some character evocation
Ginette, the prostitute Maigret had tried to help out of her circumstances. What a twist! Maigret, who started out playing Saint-Bernard – or Good Samaritan, discovers that not only hasn't Ginette left "the trade", but she is presently running a house in Nice! Maigret feels "perfectly ridiculous" – It's not always easy to be a "mender of destinies"!
Philippe de Moricourt, a young "gigolo" who knows how to turn a profit from mature women. A type that Maigret doesn't much appreciate. He has already met some others of the same kind... Philippe (him too!) Mortemart (PIC), Willy Marco (PRO), Jean Vertbois (noy).
Major Bellam and Mrs. Wilcox, whose addiction to drink reminds us of Colonel Lampson (PRO). Simenon depicts their alcoholic decay, and contrasts their way of drinking with that of Maigret – Bellam, along with Mrs. Wilcox and Sir Lampson, drink "to regard the agitation of the world with a melancholic condescension", in a way getting outside of society, while Maigret drinks "just enough to slightly amplify his feelings," meaning that on the contrary, he moves closer to those he is trying to understand.
4. Maigret and Mr. Pyke
One of the most interesting aspects of My Friend Maigret is of course the encounter between Maigret and Mr. Pyke. Pyke has been sent to France to observe Maigret's "methods" – a situation which irks Maigret, and which crops up at least one other time, with Spencer Oats, in CEC.
This meeting provides an opportunity for Simenon to make a juicy and humorous comparison between France and Britain, and to oppose two characters in what ends up looking like a competition, a "match" in which Maigret cannot stop himself from keeping score.
Just for fun, let's examine here in tabular form, some oppositions and points of comparison that Simenon enjoys evoking:

Maigret the Frenchman Mr. Pyke the Englishman

sauerkraut and aioli bacon and eggs

Calvados whisky

"compartment filled with the smoke of his pipe" "in the air (of the washroom) floated a discreet scent of lavender"

"he felt indecent in his night shirt" "correct from head to foot"

"... immediately after his breakfast... 'A small drink, as usual'?" "An English gentleman never drinks hard liquor before the end of the afternoon"

jacket and suspenders swimsuit and sandals

"vague speech, even vaguer ideas… difficulty expressing an idea... He felt something" clipped sentences... he fired... on the world in general, precise ideas

"he saw himself as heavy and soft" "neat shape"

Maigret seems to sometimes develop an inferiority complex in the face of his English colleague, and feels "tickled by the desire to defend [the South of France], as if defending his country's colors."
In spite of everything, while Mr. Pyke seems to often have the advantage, Maigret has nevertheless scored some points: Mr. Pyke is dazzled by the landscape of the south of France, Maigret is called "Chief" by Lechat, and it is Maigret who ends up discovering the truth, thanks, once more, to his intuition (to "feel" the truth is as "useful and profitable" as to have ideas!).
In the end, we can say that the match between Maigret and Pyke has neither winner nor loser, but that Maigret finishes by appreciating the tact and discretion of Mr. Pyke, and a friendship has been formed.

Murielle Wenger

Original French

And see Guido de Croock's Mon Ami Maigret pages

Maigret of the Month: Mon Ami Maigret (My Friend Maigret)
7/24/06 –

The last two novels that Simenon wrote whilst he was staying in the village of Tumacacori in Arizona were Les Fantômes du Chapelier (The Hatter’s Ghosts/The Hatter’s Phantoms), which was completed on the 13th of December 1948, and Mon Ami Maigret (My Friend Maigret) finished less than two months later on the 2nd of February 1949.
The setting of the first novel is the French port of La Rochelle (Charente-Inférieure, now Charente-Maritime), whereas the Maigret novel is set on the Island of Porquerolles (Var). Both these places were favourite venues for Simenon.
He visited La Rochelle for the first time in the summer of 1927, living just north of the port during most of the 1930s until the events of the Second World War forced him to travel inland to live in the Vendée region.
During the winter of 1925-26 through to the following spring, Simenon was working intensively writing novels and short stories under pseudonyms as well as living a full social life. This whole activity was undermining his health, with exhaustion as a result. The doctor advised Simenon’s wife Tigy to take her husband away from Paris into the countryside for a complete rest. After deliberation, Tigy suggested going to the Island of Porquerolles, with the result that in May 1926, the author and his wife, Boule their maid and cook, plus two pets, Jessie the dog and Molécule the cat, travelled to the island where they remained until the end of the summer.
Very much enamoured by the Island of Porquerolles, there were to be four more visits there, the last one being in early 1938, always staying in rented accommodation, including, at different times, at the Villas “Les Robert” and “Les Tamaris”.
(Years later, it was Georges Simenon’s eldest son, Marc, who bought the Villa “Les Robert”. It has been renamed “Les Myriades”).
In 1941 whilst living in the Vendée region in the unoccupied Free Zone of France, Simenon, alone, made a three-day visit to the Island of Porquerolles. He found it in the hands of the Italian army and the reason for his visit remains unknown, but in 1942 he obtained permission to move through the Free Zone in order to move to Porquerolles. On the day they were to move, a friend informed him that the Free Zone had been taken over by the Occupying forces, so that he was forced to remain in the Vendée for the duration of the war.
Did Simenon choose the locations for the two novels mentioned above because he knew the places so well, or was it a touch of nostalgia? Perhaps both.

A small map showing the position of the Iles d’Hyères, including Porquerolles, in relation to a section of the south coast of France including Marseille, Toulon and Hyère (Karl Baedeker, Southern France, 1914).

At the beginning of the novel Mon Ami Maigret (My Friend Maigret), the Chief Inspector is interrogating a suspect in his office on the Quai des Orfèvres. Through the window the scene is of a rain drenched Paris in the month of May.
Also Maigret has a visitor in his office, a certain Inspector Pyke from Scotland Yard in London. A few weeks previously, the Préfet de Police in Paris had made an official visit to London and had been shown around Scotland Yard. He discovered that Maigret’s name was known to some at London’s Police headquarters so that a reciprocal visit had been arranged, hence sending the French speaking Inspector Pyke to observe Maigret’s methods, which made the latter very apprehensive.
Then Maigret receives a telephone call from the Island of Porquerolles (Var) in the Mediterranean, three miles off the southern coast of France. One of the inhabitants of the island, Marcel Pacaud, had been murdered only hours after telling everyone in a bar about “his friend Maigret”.
As Maigret had dealt with Pacaud some years before and had helped Pecaud’s tubercular girlfriend, Ginette, to obtain treatment, he was asked to go to Porquerolles to investigate taking Inspector Pyke with him.
Maigret and Inspector Pyke arrive at Hyères where they are met by a local Inspector Lechat who knows the locale and many of the inhabitants on Porquerolles, so that Maigret has official help when it is required.
As soon as Maigret and Pyke land on Porquerolles, Simenon is as adept as ever in establishing the atmosphere of the island with its small harbour and landing stage, its vast square surrounded by houses, cafés, the church and the small town hall, bathed in the Mediterranean light and heat.
Simenon uses some of the actual details of the Porquerolles he knew so well, such as the small ferryboat called “The Cormorant”, which in his day conveyed people and goods from Giens to Porquerolles. Also Maigret and Pyke stay at an auberge called the “Arche de Noé”, an inn with accommodation, a bar serving food and a meeting place for some of the local inhabitants, that Simenon knew well and which still exists.
Once on Porquerolles, Maigret confines himself to one main area that of the square with its surrounding establishments, the small harbour with visits to a couple of boats, and the landing stage. The “Arche de Noé” becomes a focal point.
With the presence of Inspector Pyke, Maigret occasionally acts out of character, with a subtle rivalry developing between them, although Pyke does wander off in order to swim or have a drink with an English resident.
But Maigret spends much of his time talking to or interviewing various inhabitants and visitors, obtaining background information through Inspector Lechat and by telephoning Lucas in Paris.
Simenon builds the novel around the way that Maigret reacts mentally to the variety of personalities who knew Marcel Pacaud, the victim, however tenuously, mulling over in his mind a succession of thoughts in trying to work out the significant from the trivial.
The only translation of this novel is by Nigel Ryan who follows Simenon’s text closely.

A map showing the Ile de Porquerolles in more detail and its proximity to Giens from where a small ferry boat, “The Cormorant” conveyed people and goods in a twenty minute crossing (Carte Michelin N° 84, 1960).

Peter Foord
UK

Maigret of the Month: Mon Ami Maigret (My Friend Maigret)
7/17/06 –

[original French]

1. Maigret et la mer
Mon ami Maigret fait partie de ces romans dans lesquels le commissaire découvre – ou redécouvre – la mer, avec laquelle il a un rapport assez particulier de terrien, à la fois d'émerveillement et d'appréhension. On devrait plutôt parler des mers que Maigret rencontre, car il a une relation très différente avec l'élément liquide, selon qu'il s'agit d'une mer septentrionale, quasiment toujours décrite par Simenon dans une atmosphère froide et venteuse d'arrière-saison, ou d'une mer méridionale, évoquant la chaleur et la paresse de l'été.
La première confrontation de Maigret avec la mer va avoir lieu très tôt dans la série: déjà dans LET, au chapitre 16, quand Simenon évoque la rencontre dramatique de Pietr et de Maigret à Fécamp, une ville qu'il retrouvera dans REN. Il se rendra encore sur la Manche dans POR (Ouistreham, où Maigret est littéralement envoûté par l'atmosphère brumeuse du port), dans DAM (Etretat en automne), dans man (où il y a une tempête, évidemment!), et il la survolera dans REV pour se rendre à Londres.
L'Atlantique est présent dans JAU (Concarneau), dans JUG (L'Aiguillon, où Maigret s'empresse de se rendre à la première occasion pour échapper aux marais de la Vendée), dans NEW (Maigret traverse l'océan pour se rendre en Amérique, et essuie une tempête, comme il se doit!), dans VAC (Sables-d'Olonne, où, pour une fois, Maigret voit l'Atlantique en été, mais le temps va vite tourner au mauvais avec la dramatisation de l'intrigue), dans ECO (près de la Rochelle, où Maigret se laisse entraîner dans une enquête, appelé par une bouffée maritime d'huîtres (qu'il ne mangera pas, hélas!) et de vin blanc). Il fera encore un rapide passage à La Baule (SEU), juste le temps d'attraper un magnifique coup de soleil! La Mer du Nord est évoquée dans HOL.
La Méditerranée, elle, Maigret va la rencontrer pour la première fois dans LIB (Antibes). Tout de suite, le climat va réveiller pour le commissaire une atmosphère de vacances. Maigret, ébloui par la chaleur et les couleurs vives ("La mer était rouge et bleu, avec une transition orangée…"), va avoir de la peine à se mettre au travail. Maigret retrouvera la même sensation de paresse dans owe (Cannes) et il aura juste le temps de respirer l'odeur des mimosas lors d'un bref passage à Cannes dans MAJ, tandis qu'il pourra apercevoir le "sillage argenté" d'un voilier, avant de compter les secondes entre le flux et le reflux d'une "mer paresseuse" à Nice (VOY). Il passera encore à Toulon, pour découvrir une "mer du même bleu que les cartes postales" (FOL) et à Bandol où la mer est d'"un bleu de drapeau" (IND)
Mais c'est surtout le souvenir de son enquête à Antibes (LIB) qui hante Maigret quand il se décide à se rendre à Porquerolles. Et là, de nouveau, il redécouvre "avec un peu de vertige, le fond de la mer […] Il y avait bien dix mètres de profondeur, mais l'eau était si limpide qu'on distinguait les moindres détails": verdures et roches aquatiques, bancs de poissons. Maigret va se mettre à rôder dans le port, irrésistiblement attiré par le spectacle de la mer, qu'il préfère d'ailleurs découvrir de la rive, n'étant pas nageur et n'éprouvant manifestement pas l'envie de barboter dans ce liquide, à l'encontre de son collègue anglais! Pour Maigret, ce n'est pas le contact "tactile" de l'eau qu'il cherche, mais c'est un contact visuel qu'il établit avec la mer, jusqu'à l'éblouissement: "La mer était si lisse, si lumineuse que, quand on l'avait longtemps fixée, on ne distinguait plus, pendant un moment, le contour des objets."(chap.6) Symphonie des couleurs, en contraste avec la grisaille pluvieuse de Paris : "La mer était d'un bleu incroyable […], une île […] avec des collines très vertes, des rochers rouges et jaunes. […] Dans le fond, des toits rouges, des maisons blanches et roses […], au sommet, la petite église jaune à clocher blanc."(chap.1).
2. Maigret et le Sud
A Porquerolles, Maigret va retrouver cette sensation de paresse qu'il avait eue à Antibes (LIB), et que, peut-être, il est revenu chercher inconsciemment. La chaleur, les odeurs, tout ce qui évoque le Midi est pour lui synonyme de loisir et d'oisiveté ("Un monde tout gluant de soleil, d'odeurs de mimosas et de fleurs sucrées…" cf. LIB, chap.1), sensation dangereuse lorsqu'on est là pour travailler et mener à bien une enquête! Maigret le sait bien, comme il le dit dans sa conversation avec M. Pyke:
"J'ai fait une enquête, jadis, à Antibes et à Cannes, et je me souviens surtout d'une chaleur accablante et d'une envie de dormir qui ne me quittait pas.
–Vous n'aimez pas la Méditerranée?
–En principe, je n'aime pas les endroits où je perds le goût de travailler. […]"
Et pourtant, cela va être dur de résister à la tentation de la "porquerollite" tout sur l'île est fait pour inviter à l'indolence: "Les palmiers [...] figés dans un soleil saharien", le parfum sucré des mimosas et l'odeur des eucalyptus, le petit vin blanc du patron, la bouillabaisse, le bruit des cloches le dimanche (chap.8), et la mer "qui s'était vêtue de satin doré, et des perles, à chaque coup d'aviron scintillaient dans le soleil."
3. Evocation de quelques personnages
Ginette, la prostituée que Maigret a essayé de sortir de sa condition. Quelle ironie! Maigret, qui s'est mis à jouer les saint-bernard – ou les terre-neuve, découvre que non seulement Ginette n'a pas quitté le Milieu, mais que c'est elle qui dirige une maison de passe à Nice. Maigret se sent "parfaitement ridicule": pas facile tous les jours d'être un "raccommodeur de destinées"!
Philippe de Moricourt, un jeune "gigolo" qui sait tirer profit des dames d'âge mûr. Un genre de garçon que Maigret n'apprécie pas beaucoup. Il en a déjà rencontré d'autres du même genre: Philippe (lui aussi!) Mortemart (PIC), Willy Marco (PRO), Jean Vertbois (noy).
Le major Bellam et Mrs Wilcox, dont l'"addiction" à la boisson fait penser à celle du colonel Lampson (PRO). Simenon dépeint leur déchéance due à la boisson, et oppose, en contraste, la façon de boire de Maigret: Bellam, ainsi que Mrs Wilcox et Sir Lampson, boivent pour regarder "l'agitation du monde avec une mélancolique condescendance", se mettant en quelque sorte en-dehors de la société, tandis que Maigret, lui, boit "juste assez pour amplifier un tout petit peu ses sentiments", ce qui le rend au contraire plus proche des autres humains qu'il cherche à comprendre.
4. Maigret et M. Pyke
Un des aspects les plus intéressants de Mon Ami Maigret est bien sûr la rencontre entre Maigret et M. Pyke. Il a été envoyé en France pour observer les "méthodes" de Maigret, ce que celui-ci déteste, et pourtant il y a eu droit au moins une autre fois:cf. Spencer Oats dans CEC.
Cette rencontre est surtout l'occasion pour Simenon de faire une comparaison savoureuse et pleine d'humour entre la France et la Grande-Bretagne, et d'opposer deux personnages dans ce qui finit par ressembler à une compétition, un "match" dont Maigret ne peut s'empêcher de compter les rounds.
Just for fun, j'ai envie de dresser ici sous forme de tableau les oppositions et points de comparaison que Simenon se plaît à évoquer: Maigret le Français M. Pyke l'Anglais choucroute et aïoli oeufs au bacon calvados whisky "compartiment plein de la fumée de sa pipe" "il flottait [dans le cabinet de toilette] un discret parfum de lavande" "il se sentait indécent dans sa chemise de nuit" "correct de la tête aux pieds" "[…] aussitôt après son petit déjeuner: -Un petit alcool, comme d'habitude?" "Un gentleman anglais ne boit jamais de boissons fortes avant la fin de l'après-midi" veston et bretelles maillot de bain et espadrilles "discours vague, idées plus vagues encore […] en peine d'exprimer une idée […] Il sentait quelque chose" "phrases coupantes […] il avait tiré […] sur le monde en général, des idées précises" "il se voyait lourd et mou" "silhouette nette"

Maigret le Français M. Pyke l'Anglais

choucroute et aïoli oeufs au bacon

calvados whisky

"compartiment plein de la fumée de sa pipe" "il flottait [dans le cabinet de toilette] un discret parfum de lavande"

"il se sentait indécent dans sa chemise de nuit" "correct de la tête aux pieds"

"[…] aussitôt après son petit déjeuner: -Un petit alcool, comme d'habitude?" "Un gentleman anglais ne boit jamais de boissons fortes avant la fin de l'après-midi"

veston et bretelles maillot de bain et espadrilles

"discours vague, idées plus vagues encore […] en peine d'exprimer une idée […] Il sentait quelque chose" "phrases coupantes […] il avait tiré […] sur le monde en général, des idées précises"

"il se voyait lourd et mou" "silhouette nette"

Maigret semble parfois développer un complexe d'infériorité face à son collègue anglais, et il se sent "chatouillé par l'envie de défendre [le Midi]", comme s'il devait défendre les couleurs de son pays.
Malgré tout, si M. Pyke semble avoir souvent l'avantage, Maigret a quand même marqué des points: M. Pyke a été ébloui par le paysage du sud de la France, Maigret est appelé "patron" par Lechat, et c'est Maigret qui finit par découvrir la vérité, grâce, une fois de plus, à son intuition ("sentir" la vérité est aussi "utile et profitable" que d'avoir des idées!).
Au final, on peut dire que le match entre Maigret et Pyke n'aura ni vainqueur ni vaincu, mais que Maigret finira par apprécier le tact et la discrétion de M. Pyke, et il y aura gagné une amitié.

Murielle Wenger
11.7.06

English translation

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