The Delorme family · Issue 4 · 30 September 2026
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1. The Delorme family, from a mountain village
Following the thread of the Delorme family means finding a line of farmers and craftsmen who had lived in the same mountain village for generations. It is there that Henri was born in 1894, the sixth of seven children. He was only eleven when his father died. His mother Marguerite raised him alongside his sister Jeanne and his brother Lucien, in a house where everything was shared, bread and chores alike. In 1913, the call-up tore the young man away from his hills.
Henri was assigned to the artillery and faced fire from the very first days of August 1914. Wounded twice and treated behind the lines, he went back to the front each time to rejoin his comrades. At the end of 1917 he proudly posed beside the barrel of his battery's gun, gazing straight ahead, as if telling his mother he was still there. Demobilised in 1919, he almost never spoke about the war, except to mention the friendship of the men he had known there.
A TREASURED MEMORY
Henri posing beside the barrel of his battery's gun, end of 1917.
People · Henri · Period · 1917
Having become a carpenter, Henri settled in Paris and opened a small workshop near rue de Tolbiac. Plane in hand, surrounded by shavings and fine pieces of timber, he built a reputation as a conscientious craftsman. In 1927 he married Madeleine in front of the neighbourhood photographer. Their daughter was born the following year, and it was in that flat in the 7th arrondissement that the whole family's memories would be woven.
A TREASURED MEMORY
Henri and Madeleine's wedding at the photographer's, in 1927.
People · Henri, Madeleine · Period · 1927
Henri in his carpenter's workshop near rue de Tolbiac, plane in hand.
People · Henri · Period · Around 1925
His brother Lucien's life was a world apart. He came back from the war missing a leg and, rather than admit defeat, learned the accordion and made the terraces of Montmartre dance, light hat on his head and crutch propped against the wall. Two brothers, two paths born of the same home: one a quiet builder, the other a street artist. Passing on the Delorme story means keeping alive both ways of having lived through a century.
Lucien playing the accordion on a Montmartre terrace, crutch against the wall.
People · Lucien · Period · 1930s