Pierre Thielle stories

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but if not: our house is known in the village as “chez le baron”, because the eccentric old gentleman who lived there until his death (in the early 1980’s) was known as the baron.

We keep hearing stories about him – everyone seems to remember him with great affection – and I wanted to collect them together, so here are the few that I can recall.

• Neighbours have told us about le Baron’s diet: apparently, he used to cook up a week’s worth of food, and just eat leftovers for six days.  He also killed and ate fox/raven/crows.
• Another story told to me by several of the women who were girls in the village was that le Baron would offer a drink, and put out glasses.  Whilst he was in the other room fetching the wine [or stronger!], the girls would be frantically wiping out the glasses on their skirts to try to get them clean.  They ‘knew’ the alcohol would kill any germs, but still…!  Times change: I’m sure now that any older single gentleman inviting schoolgirls into his home and plying them with alcohol would be pretty sharply investigated by the police!  Then, I think he was just seen as a harmless eccentric, who enjoyed the company of children.  I’ve heard nothing to suggest that that wasn’t exactly the case.
• Claire and Marianne were telling me that le baron only used to use the door into the Entrance Hall, and never opened the other door, which went directly into his bedroom.  I think it was partly a propriety thing [gentleman living alone], and partly a generational thing [older people like their privacy more, and from previous generations you couldn’t even admit to having a stomach, so I’m sure a bedroom was even worse!], and probably largely a cleanliness thing!  Apparently his bedroom was dirty [now that I can believe!].  You were very welcome in his living room, but absolutely forbidden from entering his bedroom.  One time Nathalie climbed in through the window and got caught, and he grabbed her backpack and wouldn’t give it back.  So after that, all the girls were terrified of the thought of going in there.
• An old lady who visited the graveyard told me of the times in the war when he would hold “dances” [in direct contravention of the occupying forces’ orders] in the house – he’d blast out records on his gramophone, and people would dance.  I think it was a time of joy in some of the darkest days Europe had known, and this old lady remembers dancing when being taken there by her mother.
• Part of the “dispute” le baron had with the church [we haven’t heard of any dispute the church had with him, so suspect it was all one-sided!] would be to play martial music on his gramophone – with the gramophone out in the front yard during church services – at the equivalent of turning the amp up to 11.
• Pierre Thielle was buried at dawn, in the vineyards behind the house; he had no truck with the church [we live on the other side of the road to the church], and wanted to be quietly buried without any fuss or ceremony.  The day of the interment, the whole village turned out before daybreak and silently watched the end of an era. 

As it’s an unmarked grave, we’re not sure where he’s buried, but know it’s somewhere close by.  Occasionally when I’m out for a walk I look at the hillside covered in vines and wonder if a much-loved old gentleman is quietly returning to the earth there…