an art store, a breveted chocolate shop, a milliner, four photographers, three soldiers, a historian and more… a picture story spanning two continents, six generations and almost 200 years…
born in the 1840’s: Pierre Marie Germain Rachel
born in the 1870’s: Auguste Sarah Frederic
born between 1890 & 1907: Jessie Simone Fred Jr
born in th 1920’s-30’s: Alain Guy Edward
born in the 1950’s-60’s: Florence Penny Tom
born in the 1990’s: Sophie Anna
Germain Pondarre (Pierre’s brother-in-law), Pierre Gentieu, Auguste Pondarre, Orthez, 1898
Rue de l’Horloge, Orthez, Lower Pyrenees, France, 1898. Photo by Pierre Gentieu on his only visit back to Orthez, after emigrating to America 38 years earlier. The shop on the left, with the Papiers, Peints, Peinture, Encadrements sign is an art store owned by Pierre’s sister and husband, Marie and Germaine Pondarre. Marie, with Pierre’s other sister, Rachel Gentieu-Baillan run the Gentieu-Baillan Chocolatier Brevet shop up the street, which is an old family business breveted by the Duchess of Berry in 1828, when she was visiting Orthez on her way to Cauterets.
Map of 1828 Orthez given to me by Orthez historian Emmanuel Labat in 2019 showing La Praire, an apartment building owned by the Pondarres, and the location of the chocolate shop close to the art store. Up the street is the castle and across from that, the Gentieu family homestead, which could be the same house where Emmanuel lives. (The initials, PGB, which could stand for Pierre Gentieu-Baillan, an ancestor, and the year 1769 are carved above the doorway.)Marie, 1868Rachel, 1868chocolate shop, 1898
Sarah and Auguste Pondarre (son of Marie and Germain), c. 1905. Standing by a gate with a bicycle. Sarah was a milliner and upon their marriage in 1905, the art store became her hat store.
Baby Simone Pondarre with the geese, c. 1908, La Prairie, Orthez.George Gentieu, stationed in France during the Great War, visited Orthez and the Pondarres in 1919.Major Auguste PondarreGeorge Gentieu shaking hands with his French cousin, Auguste Pondarre.George, son of Pierre, Civil War veteran: “I am in your place over here so that America returns to France your services.”Jessie Gentieu visited Simone in 1949.May 25, 1952: on the right, Guy, Alain, Edmond and Simone Mousques, Sarah (Simone’s mother), Nelly Bessouat, Berthe Dornercq, her husband Eugene Dornercq, Paul Humbert, the son-in-law of Mn ch Hlad,(?) Domercq. __ Auguste Pondarre the photographer.We visited Orthez and Simone at her fortified farmhouse in 1994. Here is Tom and Anna, sitting between Simone and Sophie at Simone’s table. 1994: Simone holding a family photo (c.1928) of George and Fannie Darrigrand Swahn, descendants of the Brooklyn Darrigrands who owned the Darrigrand French Bakery on the corner of Dean Street and Flatbush, where Pierre first lived when he came to America.Sophie and AnnaAnna on rue de l’Horloge, lower right corner, standing in same spot as the little boy in Pierre’s photo.18981994
meanwhile, back in Brooklyn…
Darrigrand French Bakery, 452 Dean Street & Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York (1877?)
452 Dean & Flatbush 1872 – 2014 with envelope from Orthez dated April 1872, Darrigrand French Bakery and Cake Ambiance, 2014The Cake Ambiance, 452 Dean Street, 2014, was a recent establishment in the building where my great great grandfather Pierre Gentieu lived when he first came to America. It is also where my great grandfather, Frederic Auguste Gentieu was born, before the family grew larger and our branch spread out across the country.
Pierre took his camera to Orthez in 1898 and brought back not only a history for his family, but a future as well. He brought dirt from the family vineyard and nuts from a walnut tree that he planted and one grew tall in his backyard. He adopted the city’s motto, Toques si Gaouses (Touch It If You Dare) as the American Gentieu’s family motto. In 1929, his son Frederic commissioned a stained glass window to be made of the motto. It was never installed in the house he was remodeling, as the stock market crash put a halt to that. One of Frederic’s daughters kept it and now I have it. It sits on my window sill lit from behind by the picturesque contemporary version of Pierre’s old neighborhood of 165 years ago.
Photo by Anonymous: Felix Nadar’s second ascension of Le’ Geant in Paris on October 18, 1863, shown next to a regular size balloon to contrast its gigantic size, on the ground on which the Eiffel Tower now stands. Champ de Mars. Le’ Geant floated all night, but in the morning, it infamously landed (by crashing across the countryside in a high wind for 30 minutes, no one escaped injury) in Hanover, Germany (where King George V took them in). Nadar’s efforts to advance aviation were praised by Jules Verne, who in his next novel, modeled the main character Ardan after Nadar in Journey From The Earth To The Moon, where he was sent to the Moon in a cannon!
January 26, 1842 is the birthday of Pierre Gentieu, my immigrant ancestor from France. He owned a complete set of Jules Verne’s science fiction novels.
Consider this 1863 Parisian balloon scene and how different it is from the photo of the firing of the cannon, happening concurrently across the ocean. Imagine Pierre in 1863, age 21, as a carefree bohemian in Paris drawing satirical cartoons for underground papers, writing poetry, hanging out in salons, exploring his creativity, and perhaps he went ballooning. But instead he sailed to America, fought in the war to abolish slavery, married Binie Weed from New Canaan Connecticut, and voila, here we are!
So Happy Birthday to my great great grandfather Pierre, who stood up for his principles, fought in nine Civil War battles, and knew quite well that there was a more progressive use for the cannon than as exemplified in the photo above. At 180, he may or may not have gone to the Moon (who can really say), but he is one wise elder.
