It is at the bottom of the park, at the end of a small path that winds through the undergrowth, that the poet's grave is located. In accordance with his wishes, Paul Claudel was buried in Brangues, alongside one of his grandsons, Charles-Henri Paris, who died in 1938 at the age of two.
It is in this land of Brangues, next to this child and a tall poplar, that the patriarch rests.
His wife, Reine Sainte-Marie-Perrin, was buried next to him in 1973.
(Access to the tomb is free and signposted for visitors)
The epitaph.
“Here lie the remains and the semen of Paul Claudel”
This inscription is inspired by the epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians: “this seed which we put in the ground in the fall, seems to die during the winter, but germinates and comes back to life in the spring”.
This is a message of hope.
Already in 1892 Paul Claudel addressed this theme:
“Below reason, below consciousness, below sense,
Below instinct and every lit part of ourselves,
Behold, completely lost in a revolt like that of the Conception,
We feel that we can no longer defend this within ourselves,
Which is like the germinal nucleus, the intimate grain, the seed of our own name! »
(Paul Claudel – The Young Girl Violaine)
Source: ABVL