Cap bearing the name of his city on his head, Christophe Hoguet, the mayor of Ry (Seine-Maritime) has been counting neither his time nor his efforts since his small town was selected to participate in Stéphane Bern's show, “The French’s favorite Village”.
From social networks to the municipal sign, including small posters installed in all the windows of the main street, general mobilization has been decreed since the official announcement of February 19, 2024. “At the beginning of the month, we received an email from production announcing to us that we had been selected… without even having applied.
It surprised us, but above all pleased us.
It validates everything that the municipal team is putting in place to preserve the living environment, its authenticity…” assures the elected official of this town of almost 800 inhabitants which still has around forty businesses close to it.
An asset in a rural environment which partly explains why Ry caught the attention of the French heritage gentleman.
But not the only one.
There are also these half-timbered or brick facades, this Saint-Sulpice church and its magnificent sculpted porch from the 16th century, listed as a Historic Monument, or this small bridge which spans the Crevon.
All of this gives the place an undeniable charm.
But his fame, which extends well beyond the Normandy countryside, he owes above all to a character in a novel: Emma Bovary.
It is there, about twenty kilometers north of Rouen, that Flaubert's heroine would find her origins, even if the author chose to have her stay in Yonville-l'Abbaye, a fictional commune on the banks of the of the Rieule, an imaginary tributary of the Andelle.
Here, however, no one is fooled.
“We do not know if Flaubert stayed in Ry, but it is certain that he was inspired by a local news item to serve as a basis for the story of Madame Bovary,” assures Christophe Hoguet, who relies on the work pointed by a local historian, Gilles Cléroux, to be affirmative.
Because even if Flaubert defended himself for a long time, the suicide by poisoning, on March 6, 1848, of Delphine Delamare, wife of Eugène, a health officer, is reminiscent of the tragic fate of Emma.
And then there is this description, passed down to posterity, of this “street (the only one), a gunshot long and lined with a few shops” which “stops short at the bend in the road” so close to the topography of the place.
“Local history and the novel have merged”
So, far from specialist debates, residents and their representatives have chosen their camp a long time ago.
Traders are also playing the game, like Christophe Verdure, the chef of “Chez Ch'Rystophe”, who will offer for his spring menu a menu inspired by Flaubert with a “Ry au lait” for dessert.
“It’s a kind of heritage that we maintain.
And this candidacy to be the favorite village of the French can only be positive.
It puts us on the map of France.”
For decades, at the entrance to the town, a gallery of automatons transmitted this story to generations of schoolchildren, before closing its doors a few years ago, to the great dismay of the municipal team which would like to invent a future for him.
In the meantime, the old restaurant, “Le Bovary”, has been bought to be transformed into a place of culture and a writer's residence.
And since 2017, the Bovary committee has found new life, under the presidency of Claude Fournat, to launch a festival which takes place every year in April, “around Saint Emma” insists Christophe Hoguet, to perpetuate the Flaubertian heritage.
Because even if the Rouen author was not kind to this “lazy village lying long on the bank, like a cow herder taking a nap by the water”, in Ry no one blames him rigor.
“On the contrary,” enthuses Chantal Petit, the first assistant.
“That a man like him decides to transcribe the emotions and the state of mind of a 19th century woman, her fragilities, her passions, by making her so current, that speaks to me a lot.”
And then as Claude Fournat observes, “over the years, local history and the novel have merged in the minds of those who come to our village where it is easy to find the atmosphere of Flaubert's texts”.
Everyone hopes that this will encourage the French, and first and foremost the Normans, to vote for their candidacy.
They have until March 8 to do so.