A Love Story – Valentine’s Day in France

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A Love Story – Valentine’s Day in France
As Valentine’s Day nears I’ve been wondering why the French seem to hold an exclusive copyright on the language of romance.  Why is Cupid’s quivering arrow poised to pierce French hearts first? After a lot of fascinating and sometimes titillating research, it appears the French have, indeed, invented LOVE. What we in the 21st century recognize as romantic love has always existed.  One need look no further than Greek mythology for some of the most beautiful love stories ever told. But, at the beginning of the 12th century something new emerged in a region of western Gascony called Aquitaine.  A revolution was afoot that would become, through its many themes, the model of romantic love for all Western men and women. During the medieval period, from approximately 1100-1350, a group of lyric poets called Troubadours (men) and Troubairitz (women) began to compose songs and write poems in a complex metrical form. These chansons de geste – songs of chivalry – and fin d’amour, songs of courtly love. became a necessary diversion within medieval castle walls. The first Troubadour was William IX, the Duke of Aquitaine (1071-1126), grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1207), Queen of France and England. He composed songs of his experiences during the Crusade of 1101 and songs of romance between knights and the ladies whose love they aspired to win.  If the ladies they adored happened to be married, it just added another dimension to the stories. His maxim that love always involves suffering and ends in grief was a preamble for the two writers, Marie de France and Chrétian de Troyes, who forever changed the face of romantic love. Marie de France, (1154-1189) was most likely born in France, but lived in England.  Her personal history is speculative. She wrote lais, medieval French-Breton narratives, about chivalric love. She associated love with suffering and more than half of her stories include tales of adulterous lovers. She wrote about sexual freedom for women, a concept that was contrary to the traditions of the Church. She was known to the English court of King Henry II, whose wife was none other than Eleanor of Aquitaine. Five of her lais have survived. Chrétian de Troyes (1160-1190) lived within the same royal circle.  Not much is personally known about him either.  He frequented the court of Marie de Champagne, the eldest daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine from her first marriage to the King of France, Louis  VII.  Chrétian wrote 5 Arthurian stories, including the romance between Lancelot and Guinevere. This tale, which portrayed the adulterous, death defying love of Lancelot for King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, became the most popular love story during the Middle Ages.  Clandestine, passionate, jealous, oppressive, yearning and unrequited love epitomized the game of love which was a completely new idea – love for love’s sake – the pursuit of carnal passions and appetites.  Adultery as a literary theme emerged, spreading east from Gascony to Provence, Italy, Catalonia, Spain and Portugal. Written in one of the romance languages – French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese – these stories developed into the genre known today as “Romances”. At the same time the institution of marriage was undergoing an evolution. Marriages were originally arranged for economic purposes and dynastic benefit.  In France, marriage was never based upon love until after the French Revolution.  The repressive Napoleonic code, which took away women’s rights, has given rise to the  PACS, an agreement which gives equal rights to non married couples whether hetero or homosexual.  And because of their liberal attitudes drawn from their history, adultery doesn’t have the same moral stigma that it does in America. In France, married people are respectfully entitled to their private lives, even though public displays of the machinations of love are common. The pendulum of social movements, especially in France, is always swinging, especially attitudes about love and romance; from Abélard and Héloïse to Madame Bovary – Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas to Simon de Beauvoir – locks symbolizing everlasting love on the Pont de l’Archeveché – to Président François Hollande and Julie Gayet. We look to the French as role models since the time when they opened the gates to the myriad of romantic possibilities because ultimately, no matter what form your love takes, it’s the basis for a meaningful life.
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Sue Aran lives in the Gers department of southwest France. She is the owner of French Country Adventures, which provides private, personally-guided, small-group food & wine adventures into Gascony, the Pays Basque and Provence. She writes a monthly blog about her life in France and is a contributor to Bonjour Paris and France Today magazines.

Comments

  • LITHU S L
    2020-02-13 04:21:54
    LITHU S L
    Love ❤

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