Before surveying the Parisian Seine, François Sureau and Vincent Decque take a break in Créteil to make us (re) discover the abbey of Créteil which was a phalanstery of artists. It was founded in 1906 by Charles Vildrac and Georges Duhamel on the model of the Abbey of Thélème de Rabelais.
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Before entering Paris, we stop at its gates, in Créteil in a place that has been described as Villa Medici before the letter, unofficial Villa Medici: it is the abbey of Créteil. And for this episode, let’s leave the voice to François Sureau in person to present to us what is hidden in the evocation of the day.
The Abbey of Créteil is a dream, a brotherly dream, a writer’s dream, an artist’s dream, a Fourierist dream. And it is here that a completely white house has been restored, with a large park and outbuildings with facades eaten by ivy on the left. It is here that in 1906, Vildrac and Georges Duhamel, inspired by the abbey of Thélème de Rabelais, decided to found a phalanstery of artists in an abandoned building. They settled there like the monks of the old days. They wanted to live together, as in a hippie community of the 70s, with women and children, with artists from all walks of life, in a very European, very open, very international spirit. (Francois Sureau)
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