The city of Dreux has a population of just over 31,000. Which seems quite small to us. But when you consider that between 1954 and 1990 the population more than doubled, you have some measure of this town's exponential growth. In the heart of the city, you have a core of old historic buildings. Between and completely surrounding the original confines of the ancient town, you have modern urban dwellings and the results of what must have been a significant housing crisis in the early decades of the mass influx of people into Dreux.
I've driven through this place, and more frequently, driven around it on the bypass hundreds of times. It's not really a place that I want to come back to. It's too noisy, too busy, too crowded. Having read Andrew Hussey's book, I can now see that it is a perfect example of the societal and urban fracturing he draws attention to in Fractured France. The population is multicultural, the hijab is openly worn on the streets, and, despite the ban, I see a group of women wearing burkas strolling on the opposite side of the street. For a moment I wonder which country I'm actually in.
But I'm here because I want to get to the station to see if the original building, completed and opened on June 15th, 1864, is still intact. If it is, it will be one of the few along this rail route that has served as a station and is still used as such here in the 21st century.
I'm not disappointed. The long wings of the first building are still identifiable as they flank the central portion, which houses the station's main entrance and primary foyer. The solid quadrangular shape of the building was given a more modern facelift in 1932 by the Parisian architect Paul Louis Genuys (1818-1937). The frontage of the building that we see today, with its sweeping arches, high semi-circular windows and stone pillars, was Genuys' vision and gives the impression that the traveller is entering a vast mansion. Old photographs and postcards show the station as it was before Genuys worked his magic. I prefer the current version to the characters' experiences on the Paris Express in 1895.
As I cross the square in front - all part of a remodelling of this area of town in 2017 - with its fountains, I notice a street name that I recognise. There's another street in Granville - the starting place for our journey - that has the same name: Place Pierre-Semard.
Pierre Semard (1887-1942) was born into a family of rail workers and spent his youth in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. At the age of 13, he followed in his father's footsteps and began work on the railway. During his career, he became a Trade Unionist. Eventually, he held the post of Secretary General of the Federation of Railway Workers and became the leader of the French Communist Party. During the occupation, he was imprisoned and eventually executed on March 7th, 1942, as a political prisoner.
I turn to make my way back to the car. I need the peace, the quiet, the lilting ripple of the stream that flows beside my camping spot. As I make my way through town, I can not think of a better-placed street name than that outside the station here in Dreux.
You can catch up with the previous posts in this series by clicking the following links: Granville part 1, Granville part 2, Vire, Flers, Briouze, Argentan and Surdon. My review of the book, The Paris Express, is Here
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