#lavallette

From a turn-of-the-century bio on Junot, when you could scrap together some dubious memoires, some invented dialogue, some categorically unkind descriptions, cite not a single source, and call it a day.

A bit of background - Junot’s just married our old untrustworthy friend Laure and is about to ask her mother if he can invite some mates over. And he’s got some quality friends. 👌

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Le lendemain, Junot arrive chez sa belle-mère : « Je voudrais recevoir mes amis ici, ce soir. » Une fois de plus, la descendante des Commène a un haut-le-corps : « Ce n’est pas dans les bonnes manières … C’est le fait d’un garçon menuisier fêtant le lendemain de noce à la Courtille », et à part soi elle pense : « Mon gendre ne manque ni d’esprit, ni de vaillance, mais ce ne sera jamais qu’un colonel de hussards. »

Junot tient à son idée : des amis, voyons !

- D’abord, viendront-ils chez moi qu’ils ne connaissent pas ?

- Sans aucun doute.

En effet, les amis, qui n’étaient point fâchés de voir l’épouse du camarade, ne firent point de façon et successivement Mme Permon vit arriver : un grand garçon, svelte, élégant, point beau mais de figure expressive, avec un catogan et des cheveux coupés en vergettes, bien poudrés et pommadés : Lannes ; un homme tout rond avec des gros yeux à fleur de tête, une physionomie molle et floue : Duroc ; un gaillard méridional, de belles dents, un plus belle accent, louchant un peu en portant sur le col une queue de cheveux longue et mince : général Bessières ! Suivaient Eugène de Beauharnais, joli, plaisant s’il n’eût été déparé par d’affreuses dents, ainsi que sa mère Joséphine ; Rapp, lourd, d’écorce rude et point travaillée, visiblement l’antipode d’un mondain ; Berthier, petit, mal bâti, des cheveux crépus et de couleur indécise, de vilaines mains aux ongles rongés, et bredouillant par surcroît ; enfin, un curieux magot, un Bacchus monté sur de petites jambes, admirablement chauve sauf quatre ou cinq cheveux naguère célèbres dans l’armée d’Egypte et dont chacun avait nom : l’Invincible, le Redoutable, de Courageux : l’aimable, le spirituelle Lavallette. 

De son côté, Mme Permon avait convié un vieil ami, M. de Caulaincourt, ancien officer général, et ne se doutait pas, la respectable dame, à quelles épreuves son invité allait être soumis.

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The next day, Junot arrives at his mother in law’s house : « I would like to receive my friends here, this evening. » Once again, the descendant of the Byzantine Emperors has a start : « It’s not good manners… it’s the act of a blue-collar boy celebrating the day after the wedding at la Courtille » and to herself she thinks : « My son in law lacks neither wit nor valour, but he’ll never be anything but a hussard colonel. »

Junot sticks to his guns : C’mon, my friends !

- First of all, will they come to my house - that of a woman they don’t know ?

- Oh, without a doubt.

Indeed, the friends, who were not at all put out by the prospect of seeing the wife of a comrade, did not object and Mrs. Permon saw them arrive in succession : a big kid, thin, elegant, not handsome but with an expressive face, with a ponytail and hair cut in vergettes, well powdered and pomaded : Lannes ; a round man with big, bulging eyes and a soft, undefined face : Duroc ; a strapping young southerner, with pretty teeth and a prettier accent, a little cross-eyed and wearing down his neck a long, thin queue : General Bessières ! Followed by Eugène de Beauharnais nice-looking but for his terrible teeth, like those of his mother Joséphine ; Rapp, heavy, with a tough, unpolished figure, visibly the polar opposite of a socialite ; Berthier, short, poorly-built, with frizzy hair of an indistinct colour, and nasty-looking hands, the nails all bitten down, mumbling and stammering as he spoke ; and finally a curious ape, a Bacchus set upon little legs, admirably bald but for four or five hairs so recently celebrated in the Army of Egypt and of which each had a name : The Invincible, The Formidable, The Courageous : the amiable and witty Lavallette. 

For her part, Mrs. Permon had invited an old friend, Mr. de Caulaincourt, who had been Officer General, and she didn’t doubt - respectable lady that she was - of the trials to which her guest would be subjected.

(She’s definitely right … the poor guy tries talking to Rapp and is almost instantly scared off, then he ends up sitting next to Lannes at dinner and thinks it’s going to go better. It does not.)

The 22 meter long tugboat Sea Cypress ran aground the early morning hours of July 24.  The tugboat had broken free from its mooring and it’s propeller became entangled.  Disabled and near the shoreline, the Sea Cypress drifted until it ran up on a  sandbar near Lavallette, New Jersey.  The Sea Cypress remained aground until the afternoon.  With the rising tide, two tugs were able to pull the Sea Cypress free.  No reports of injuries to the four crew, damage or pollution released.

Photo: jerseyshoreonline.com

Photo: jerseyshoreonline.com

Photo: jerseyshoreonline.com