It happened on 20 September
The Mallarmé Museum is reopening for two days, and today is the last day
The Stéphane Mallarmé Departmental Museum in Vulaines-sur-Seine has been closed to the public since mid-July. It is reopening free of charge during Heritage Days, yesterday and today. Today is the second of these two days, and the last.
It is the former Mary Inn, on the banks of the Seine, opposite the forest. Mallarmé rented a few rooms there from 1874 onwards. He died there on 9 September 1898 and was buried in Samoreau Cemetery.
The Department purchased the house on 3 June 1985, in the presence of Jack Lang.
Five ships set off on a round-the-world voyage without realising it
On 20 September 1519, Magellan’s fleet sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in Andalusia. Five ships, nearly two hundred and fifty men, and one objective: to find a western route to the Moluccas.
Only one ship will return. La Victoria, under the command of Elcano, on 6 September 1522. With eighteen men on board, all of whom were ill and exhausted.
They hadn’t set off on a round-the-world trip. They did it anyway.
Mallarmé had a boat too
Whilst Magellan was searching for a passage, The poet from Valvins was content with the Seine.
Between 1876 and 1879, Mallarmé had a wooden sailing boat built for himself in Honfleur, which, according to the museum, was nicknamed «the S.M.». ‘Its white sail,’ the museum writes, ‘reminded him of a large blank page.’. The rowing boat is returning to The White Water Lily.
The poet of the blank page spent his summers sailing. It’s only in Vulaines that you can tell at a glance.
