Juliette is my very own Scarlett. Full of surprises, an iron Lady under her long curly hair, so fashionable in the 1880s. A real Lady, who, all her life, harboured an incredible secret..
Layers of secrets, actually, like onion skins. 

She was already an old poised lady, well established, when her story began for me. Widow of the Count Adrien de la Valette, mother of three children, among them my great-great-grand-father, Camille de Morlhon, movie maker in the silent times, founder of the French Automobile Club. She still photographs well, she always was a very beautiful woman. Haughty too, scornful even, with above all a hard glint in her eye and her impatiently tapping stick. 

We don’t really know when she married Adrien. That’s normal because most of the archives were burnt in Paris during the “Commune” revolution in 1870. Camille was born in 1869, in Passy (which was at the time an upper class suburb of Paris). The birth certificate states that he is the son of Juliette de Sohn. 

On Juliette’s death certificate act, she is said to be daughter of Jules de Sohn and Mélanie Boutmy.
Familial tradition speaks of Alsatian nobility. 

And I searched and searched, without ever finding anything. All tracks lead to dead-ends, one after the other. 

I have to acknowledge it’s not that easy. I found somewhere the death certificate of her mother, Mélanie Boutmy, at Ouled Rahmoun, near Constantine. What was she doing in Algeria ? 

But of the birth, wedding or death of Jules de Sohn, no track. 

And suddenly, one day, thanks to Internet, Juliette’s story takes a new start.
Simple a new search engine, a name combination I had not tried till now, and I find… a list of emigrants to Algeria.

Juliette’s story has just completely changed. 

We are on the 30th of November in 1848. The weather is probably cold and wet, in the middle of this winter, when the convoy of colons who will found Aboukir leaves Paris, at Quay Saint Bernard. It is the last but one of the workers convoys decided by the Second Republique to colonise the newly pacified Algeria.
The very first convoys were very similar to deportation, the government organizing willingness of the workers who get excited in the hot days of June. Under justifications of Great France and high ideals, it was convenient to get rid off strong heads. But the candidates flowed in, overwhelming the government’s plan. 

At the end, it was for most of them, free willing colons, as long as you are free-willing, when pushed by hunger. 

To arrive here, Juliette has already walked a lot. She might be born in Vienne, 500 kilometres south of Paris, where her parents married. But the misery was even greater down there, and one leaves up North, to capital city, to find bread and work. Julien (and not Jules!) is a figure maker, he has learned the craft from Italians, he produces moulded plaster objects, copies of statues… Worker with artistic temperament, but that does not feed Juliette and her siblings.
So, Julien left, with Mélanie and her parents, Joseph and Agathe, with Marie, the first daughter, his elder, Georges, and Juliette and Édouard. There is also little Frederika, who got a strange name both from a polish friend of Julien and admiration for Chopin. And, in Paris, they all stuffed themselves, so bad, not so good, in a small room of the first district, and they survived. It might be that Melanie lost a child after Édouard ….. 

The national Workplaces

Julien is educated. It is merely impossible that Juliette be the daughter of an ignorant, there are things you cannot catch up after childhood. Julien might be a strong head, he gets revolted by misery, and the treachery of revolutionary ideals. He survived, thanks to an inept work without justification, provided by the National Workplaces (where the State employed workers in mostly useless tasks, in order to feed them and avoid social uproars). He, who knew how to make angels’ smiles is reduced to dig useless trenches in the Park of the “Champ de Mars”... 
And this hope for a new life came. On 20th of September, it is officially announced that 12.000 colons will set up in Algeria before the end of the year. They will become the owners of the ground they work. 

This is the end of their errand. Julien shows his papers, his family goes through the medical check-up: “Health: good ; strength: good ; Weakness: none ; Diseases: none; chest search: nothing: Chances of acclimatising : very good!" 

And one needed good health to survive this journey... 

Maybe Juliette did already understand that, with the departure ceremony: I see her, standing tightly against her brother Georges, and may also be holding little Frederika by hand. Her mother holds Marie in her arms, she is already heavy, but this is the only way to quieten her down. Her grand-parents are standing a little bit behind, with Madame Dunies, the midwife promised to the settlement by the government..

The ceremony is long and pompous. Music, speeches, once again speeches and music. 

"Colons of Algeria, dear fellow citizens. It is a solemn moment, the one when your last look salute France. Your hearts are oppressed by fear, because your families, your friends are with you, they press you in their arms, they cover you with their fraternal farewells. But your hearts are also opening to hope, you know that the African France stands in front of you, and that you are going to found a “people”, a civilization ; you know that a high destiny is waiting for you!"

Tarari, tarara, applauds  !

" This work is immense, it is magnificent, it is highly patriotic and Christian.
It is immense, because it is to transfer to this African land, ere so rich, so powerful, so populated, now so miserable and deserted, a part of the vivid forces of the Nation. It is to found, on the other side of the sea, another French Republic, and it is given to you to realize this thought, which, for so long time, made our enemies tremble. It falls to you to make Mediterranean Sea but a French lake.
[...]

Go there, to bring our French pride, but also goodness, indulgence and fraternity, which we receive at birth in our dear motherland, and nourish deep in our souls, to serve all “people”. The sword has accomplished its task, and do your own one ; it subdued ones who opposed the arrival of civilization ; you, now, will make your duty, call to you these Arabs, whose eyes and hearts are not yet opened, and, under your efforts and influence, become they also our brothers."

Pom-pom , songs, oompah, oom-pah-pah, barters and hurrays. 

" Citizens, here is your Commandant ! He knows Africa, he studied, and prepared the soil where you are going to set up your families. After introducing you the conquered land, he
will be your father during the journey. Be respectful and devoted children to him.
Here is the doctor who will guard your health and take care of your wives and children. The artilleryman of the Paris Guard” who receives your flag is dependable, he can and will hold it high and strong on African land, as he already defended it on French land, against those who threatened it.
Let us part today, my friends, under hurrahs for the Constitution!". 

Julien, former Sergeant in the «National Guard» receives from the Mayor’s hands the flag of the Colony, Meskra, which will soon be renamed Aboukir.

The crowd shouts and claps, as always, handkerchiefs are taken out, and, in the sounds of hooves and shouts of carters, the columns of heavy work-horses pull up the boat convoy from the quay. The first part of the journey to Marseilles has started.

Juliette was extremely tasteful, always dressed up to the nines, neat and clean as only few people were, when no running water was available. 

How did she survived these 12 days of unthinkable promiscuity ? Men, women, children all mixed up in a sultry confined space. The stench of toilets, of wine, of drunken men, of sweat, all mingled ? Nappies piled up… And at the same time, this creeping damp, the icy rain of December, through the dislodged planks... 

She swore to herself she will never go through this again. To bear it, yes, but once only, to escape poverty. There would be a day, whatever the price be, when this promiscuity would be only a memory. A forgotten memory. 

She stayed mute, seeing, looking only at Marie, who plays with Frederika, and Edouard. Feed Edouard, be cuddled by Marie. 
Julien is the flag-bearer, and this grants him some authority. He his Board Master on his barge, and commands a squad of 12 men to enforce order. He is trying to prevent the men from drinking too much, and those who cross the border will have, at his injunction, to disembark and rally Marseilles on feet ! He gets some enmities, which will be decisive later, in Algeria, but also wins the respect of the other colons.

But, in spite of the best will in the world, in spite the slight advantages harvested by Julien, promiscuity is there, incredible, unavoidable. Juliette has to open her eyes, and witnesses three accouchements. Two of the babies won’t survive, in spite of Madame Dienes’ efforts, and those of the military ambulance, not really used to these kind of tasks.

Juliette hears them muttering in a low voice, against the refusal to stop, at least to let the poor women give birth on the bank, in fresh open air, on a dry mattress. But the entrepreneur’s representing refused to loose time, backed up by the convoy’s captain. During two days, she is closing her ears, one of a still small girl, no to hear the shouts of one of the parturients, and the shouts of the drunk men who protest.
The three women will survive, in spite of all of them getting the puerperal fevers. But one of the hand workers, too drunk, is fallen over the rambarde, and, caught by the winter cold, immediately sunk. Two other small children will also die, and at each death’s announcement, Mélanie holds tighter and tighter little Marie.