When he talks about his beginnings in the village, old clichés immediately emerge.
“Life was very different from today,” recalls the former teacher.
When I arrived in Saint-Paul, there were at least five cafes and grocery stores… We went to get our liter of oil, half a liter of coffee, we didn't ask ourselves any more questions.
And the wine was the same.
Even to have mustard, you had to come with your pot and the shopkeeper would give us a ladle.
"
At just 100 years old, Michel Davesne
has gone through the decades to become an emblematic figure of the small town of Oise, located east of Beauvais.
A living memory which, as we celebrate the 77th anniversary of the D-Day landings, has agreed to dive back into its memories.
"These kids were nice, they had suffered during the Occupation"
Born in 1921 in Laversines (Oise), he arrived in Saint-Paul in 1946 to become a teacher, just married, after four years of war where he escaped the compulsory labor service (STO).
“I ended up working on a farm in Silly-Tillard and I resurfaced at the Liberation… Otherwise, I might not be talking to you today,” he breathes.
Here as elsewhere, the Second World War has left its mark.
“There was nothing left in the classroom, only blackboards and chalk.
Everything had been looted, you even needed coupons to have school notebooks, because there were no papers.
No more books, no more cards either.
“The school had been occupied by the Germans, we had to start from scratch…”, remembers the centenarian.
At the end of the Second World War, the numbers were reduced in the classes.
Juliette Duclos
In this year 1946, a handful of students made a timid return to their school benches.
“They were nice kids, they had suffered during the Occupation, so they were happy to come back to class,” he smiles.
Especially since during the war, the children did not have the food they should have had.
Even after the Liberation, food stamps were still in progress, "to buy bread, a few grams of butter or a little meat".
Scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough
As France is rebuilt, Michel Davesne gets notebooks and books.
“The main thing was to teach them to read, write and count,” he says.
In the classes, the numbers are growing: "I taught them the history of France, geography ..."
Sitting in an armchair in his daughter's kitchen on this early June day, the former teacher spreads out old black and white class photos on the table: "Look how smiling they are, they were still there. well dressed in Saint-Paul.
The years go by, to the rhythm of childhood epidemics, such as scarlet fever, measles or whooping cough.
“We had to close the school for almost three days sometimes, the time to disinfect everything.
"
In 1959, the class sizes increased.
Juliette Duclos
Among his students, certain memories remain vivid, such as this “pencil case” offered by an aunt for the first day of school or even the “rulers on the fingers”.
“But we did not talk about it once we got home, because we risked getting an even worse beating, remembers Michel Becquet, 74 years old.
At that time, the teacher was always right according to the parents.
"
Winter in Saint-Paul, summer in Dieppe ...
He returned to school in 1947, he was only six years old.
“I stayed there until I was 14, when I passed my school certificate.
Then, he passed a CAP in construction to become a craftsman.
But on the phone, we hear him smile when he sees those firecrackers they had "cracked" with friends.
"Mr. Davesne hated it… The next day he had us all scan to find the culprits and we had to copy a hell of a lot of lines…"
Read also Nearly a thousand letters between a soldier and his beloved had been sleeping in a cellar in the Oise for 60 years
As the siblings succeed one another on the school benches, the teacher begins to know everyone in the village.
His official accommodation?
The town hall, which he occupies with his three children.
“I was also the town hall secretary, I had a dual function, so people came to see me with their pay slips, to fill out income tax returns or when they had a problem.
"
Next to him, his daughter, Françoise Davesne adds: "There was no schedule like now, people came to the town hall at any time ..." In summer, with his wife and three children , he goes to see the sea. No more rationing, the family has its own car.
"We went to the coast of La Manche, to Le Tréport, Dieppe, Deauville…"
From a handful at the end of the war, the number of students exceeded fifty in the 1960s. “It's the baby boom. "Among the elders who have grown up, some are called for" the Algerian war "... Then, 1981 rings, François Mitterrand comes to power, Michel Davesne retires:" It was not for his election but because I I was 60 years old… ”And a whole era, already behind him.