Georges and Pauline Vanier by Mary Frances Coady

Author:Mary Frances Coady [Coady, Mary Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780773586338
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

11

BEGINNING OF WAR

If Georges Vanier had any inkling that in moving to Paris he was entering the lion’s den, he did not show it. In a speech to the Canada Club, given at the Savoy Hotel in London, he implied that the only thing that would have held him back from accepting the Paris posting would have been resistance from Pauline. “I owe much to her inspiration, much to her advice and criticism in which for my good she is not always sparing. Without her by my side, I would not like to face the task in Paris.”1 As he stepped into his new role, his silver–grey hair, his military bearing, and his height of just over six feet gave him a distinguished appearance. His gaze was clear and direct, giving the impression of a quiet confidence. To those who welcomed him, his loss of a leg on French soil while fighting for freedom made him an instant hero.

Having left the children in their English boarding schools to finish out the school year, Georges and Pauline moved into a one–floor apartment, with tall windows and ornate wrought iron ledges, at 55 avenue Foch, one of the grand boulevards leading down to the Arc de Triomphe. At some point after his experience of Father Steuart’s Good Friday sermon the previous year, Georges had begun to accompany Pauline to daily Mass, and they continued this routine in Paris, beginning each day at the church of St Honoré d’Eylau at Place Victor Hugo, a short walk from their home. They also set aside a half hour each day for private prayer and meditation. For this quiet period, Georges found a small white church tucked into rue Cortembert, a long and narrow street of townhouses with geranium–filled window boxes and iron balconies. The church was open day and night, and had a tranquil, neo–Gothic simplicity. The busy sounds of the nearby Place du Trocadéro were a reminder that he was not removing himself from the world by spending this time in solitude, but paradoxically, immersing himself more deeply in it.

To Pauline, Paris was the centre of all that was chic and cultured. She was attracted by the glittering society of aristocrats and intellectuals that awaited her there as Canada’s chatelaine. But she also felt ambivalent about being swallowed up by a life of vanity and superficiality, faced with social obligations when she longed for the peace of a Carmelite monastery. Thirteen–year–old Byngsie commiserated with her: “I’m sorry you have so much social stuff, which is really so pointless and yet it has to be.”2 In London, she had been sustained by Father Clutton’s calm direction and advice, Father Steuart’s conferences, and her occasional visits to the Carmelites where she consulted Mother Mary of the Cross. What would be her spiritual mainstay in Paris? Father Clutton sent the following advice: “Be assured you are all right … Don’t mind your vanities – laugh at yourself.”3

The first weeks in Paris were taken up with diplomatic formalities. The Canadian legation, which had a staff of twelve, stood on rue François I, overlooking the Seine.

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