an art store, a breveted chocolate shop, a milliner, photographers, soldiers, a historian and more… a picture story spanning two continents, six generations and almost 200 years…
Pierre Marie Germain Rachel
Auguste Sarah Frederic
Simone Fred Jr
Alain Guy Edward
Florence Penny Tom
Sophie Anna
Germain Pondarre (Pierre’s brother-in-law), Pierre Gentieu, Auguste Pondarre, Orthez, 1898
Rue de l’Horloge, Orthez, Lower Pyrenees, France, 1898. Photo by Pierre Gentieu on his only visit back to Orthez, after emigrating to America 38 years earlier. The shop on the left, with the Papiers, Peints, Peinture, Encadrements sign is an art store owned by Pierre’s sister and husband, Marie and Germaine Pondarre. Marie, with Pierre’s other sister, Rachel Gentieu-Baillan run the Gentieu-Baillan Chocolatier Brevet shop up the street, which is an old family business breveted by the Duchesse de Berri in 1828.
Map of 1828 Orthez given to me by Orthez historian Emmanuel Labat in 2019 showing La Praire, an apartment building owned by the Pondarres, and the location of the chocolate shop close to the art store. Up the street is the castle and across from that, the Gentieu family homestead, which could be the same house where Emmanuel lives. (The initials, PGB, which could stand for Pierre Gentieu-Baillan, an ancestor, and the year 1769 are carved above the doorway.)Marie, 1868Rachel, 1868chocolate shop, 1898
Sarah and Auguste Pondarre (son of Marie and Germain), c. 1905. Sarah was a milliner and had a hat shop.
Baby Simone Pondarre with the geese, 1907, La Prairie, Orthez.George Gentieu, stationed in France during the Great War, visited Orthez and the Pondarres in 1919.Major Auguste PondarreGeorge Gentieu shaking hands with his French cousin, Auguste Pondarre.George, son of Pierre, Civil War veteran: “I am in your place over here so that America returns to France your services.”Jessie Gentieu visited Simone in 1949.May 25, 1952: on the right, Alain, Guy, Edmond and Simone Mousques, Sarah (Simone’s mother), Nelly Bessouat, Berthe Dornercq, her husband Eugene Dornercq, Paul Humbert, the son-in-law of Mn ch Hlad,(?) Domercq. __ Auguste Pondarre the photographer.We visited Orthez and Simone at her fortified farmhouse in 1994. Here is Tom and Anna, sitting between Simone and Sophie at Simone’s table. 1994: Simone holding a family photo (c.1928) of George and Fannie Darrigrand Swahn, descendants of the Brooklyn Darrigrands who owned the Darrigrand French Bakery on the corner of Dean Street and Flatbush, where Pierre first lived when he came to America.Sophie and Anna18981994Anna in Orthez on rue de l’Horloge by the old art store, 1994
meanwhile, back in Brooklyn…
Darrigrand French Bakery, 452 Dean Street & Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York (1877?)
452 Dean & Flatbush mashup with envelope from Orthez dated April 1872, Darrigrand French Bakery to The Cake Ambiance, 2014The Cake Ambiance, 452 Dean Street, 2014, a recent establishment in the building on Dean Street where my great great grandfather lived when he first came to America. My great grandfather, Frederic Auguste Gentieu was born here, before the family spread out. My grandfather was born in New Jersey, and my dad was born in Michigan. I was born in Ohio, but now I live in Brooklyn, right up the street from this building.
Pierre took his camera to Orthez in 1898 and captured in photos not only a history for his family, but a future as well. He also adopted the city’s motto, Toques si Gaouses (Touch It If You Dare) as the new American Gentieu’s family motto. In 1929, his son, my great grandfather Frederic commissioned a stained glass window to be made with the motto. It’s mine now, and I display it in my 16th floor office window overlooking old Brooklyn.
