My French grandpa was a great storyteller. When I came over to France for good, I got to know him quite well and enjoyed our lunches in Paris at the Cercle Militaire where he, as a veteran, could have guests.
He loved talking about our family. The story changed slightly with each retelling, but it was fun to hear every time.
One of our ancestors, Jean Garney de la Rivière, was a guard of Louis the 16th, the last French king who was executed in 1793. According to my grandpa, Jean Garney was buried in St Denis where the kings of France are interred. This didn’t exactly make us royalty, but close enough to it, as far as my grand-père was concerned.
Grandpa’s family name was Peu Du Vallon. He claimed that we were related to Porthos, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds, one of The Three Musketeers of Dumas (père) fame. I took up epee fencing in France and thought that it was awesome to be related to a real musketeer. I even trained to do some artistic fencing and was in a swashbuckling show during which I fell off the stage. The spectators thought it was intentional. Luckily I wasn’t badly injured.
My bubble sort of burst some time later when I learned that Porto’s was a fictional character in the Dumas novels. However, his character was based on a real person and it still makes for a good story!
— MCW
He loved talking about our family. The story changed slightly with each retelling, but it was fun to hear every time.
One of our ancestors, Jean Garney de la Rivière, was a guard of Louis the 16th, the last French king who was executed in 1793. According to my grandpa, Jean Garney was buried in St Denis where the kings of France are interred. This didn’t exactly make us royalty, but close enough to it, as far as my grand-père was concerned.
Grandpa’s family name was Peu Du Vallon. He claimed that we were related to Porthos, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds, one of The Three Musketeers of Dumas (père) fame. I took up epee fencing in France and thought that it was awesome to be related to a real musketeer. I even trained to do some artistic fencing and was in a swashbuckling show during which I fell off the stage. The spectators thought it was intentional. Luckily I wasn’t badly injured.
My bubble sort of burst some time later when I learned that Porto’s was a fictional character in the Dumas novels. However, his character was based on a real person and it still makes for a good story!
— MCW
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