We arrive in Brittany

The Paris Orchestra was evacuated to Brittany, and my mother came to get me at the Château de Challain-la-Poterie and we rejoined my father and sister in Rennes. She enrolled me at the Beaux-arts in Rennes, which had moved into the Musée, since the school had been converted to a military hospital. It was a difficult year, with endless waves of refugees arriving by rail and road carrying everything they could with them. Enormous carts pulled by stumbling horses arrived from the north, overflowing with exhausted families washing up on the Brittany shores. My parents took in several of these families to help them get back on their feet. At the Musée, the teachers and staff encouraged us to take bottles of water to the people coming in on the overcrowded trains. We were assigned to take down and roll the huge canvases at the Musée that were to be sent to a safe place - Rubens's lion hunters, among others. We had good artists in our courses, but they were not trained as teachers. They showed us drawing, sketching, architecture, modelling, oil painting, mural painting, anatomy and literature.