On the road from Vire to Villedieu in the Norman department of Calvados, there is a crossroads. Take the road south towards St. Martin de Tallevende, through the rolling countryside; on the right-hand side stands an ancient farm known as La Belliere.
Here, Auguste Beaune lived more than a century ago.
As a boy, Auguste heard about the glories of Napoleon and his Grand Armee, but growing up among the sheep and goats in the pastoral countryside, the wars seemed like little more than distant thunder. As a skilled manufacturer of Calvados, the Norman apple brandy, Auguste's father was exempt from service in the Grand Armee. Auguste was an only child; his mother died in childbirth, and the only "mother" he knew was Mary, an English housekeeper and governess engaged to care for him.
From Mary, Auguste learned to speak and write perfect English. He read voraciously in both English and French, absorbing Enlightenment thought from both sides of the Channel. When he wasn't reading, he worked with his father and learned how to make Calvados. And when he wasn't reading or making Calvados, he tinkered with gadgets in the farm's workshop. In all three endeavors -- reading, Calvados-making and tinkering -- Auguste showed great talent.
With the Bourbon Restoration, little changed at La Belliere. Local workers harvested the apples, hay and other crops, while Auguste and his father made cider and Calvados from the apples. A beautiful young girl named Marie-Helene came to live on the farm; she tended the sheep, goats and cows and made butter and cheese.
Auguste was enraptured with Marie-Helene from her first day. The feeling was mutual. They soon copulated amongst the haystacks, and before summer turned to fall Marie-Helene was pregnant. Auguste's father swiftly arranged a civil marriage, and the young couple moved in to a cottage adjacent to the main farmhouse at La Belliere.
The farm prospered. The soil was fertile and so, it turns out, was Marie-Helene; in quick succession, she bore five girls, of which three survived. Prosperity and domestic bliss notwithstanding, Auguste was restless; amidst the corruption and ineptitude of the Bourbon monarchy, America seemed to shine as a beacon of liberty and boundless prosperity. When Auguste's father died and willed him La Belliere, he decided to sell the farm and emigrate.
La Belliere brought a small fortune. Auguste arranged for letters of credit drawn on a London bank, carefully packed his books and tools, arranged for the shipment of the cider presses and Calvados-distilling works and set out for Cherbourg by coach with Mary, Marie-Helene and the three girls.
As the coach rocked and swayed on the rutted road, Marie-Helene felt sick to her stomach. She was pregnant again.
