The Mont Joly

From this place, we discover, to the north, the plain of Caen, and the green surroundings south of Falaise. A peak is the magnificent gorges of La Breche au Diable. But Mont Joly is famous for holding the tomb of Marie Joly, a French actress of the 18th century. A very romantic story…

The story of Marie Joly

Marie-Elisabeth Joly is born in Versailles on the 8th of April 1761 as daughter of a a wardrobe keeper who played subordinate parts in comedies with his wife. So, it wasn’t difficult for Marie to adopt the world of theatre. At the age of seven she played ‘Louison’ in ‘Le Maladie Imaginaire’ form Moliere.
Every evening the audience greeted her and and praised the finesse of her interpretation , her mischievousness and her lively intelligence.
She had many admirers – the most ardent of them she married in Caen:
M. Nicolas Fouquet Dulomboy, captain of the cavalry, knight of ‘l’Ordre de Malte de Saint-Louis’, and owner of the mansion of Poussendre nearby.
She hated noise and she liked being in the mansion of Poussendre to pass lovely holidays with her husband and her children there.
She loved Jean-Jacqes Rousseau and went on pilgrimage with his family to visit his tomb. She deposed a magnificent crown of bronze there, ‘To the spirits of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’.
Much work, many emotions, five childbirths, some accidents and a fragile chest were harmful to the sanity of Mme Dulomboy. Her great courage however, could not defeat her illness and Marie Joly died because of an angina pectoris in Paris, on the 5th of May in 1798. She had 37 years.
The prematured dead of Marie Joly dismayed the world of theatre and the whole region of Saint-Quentin where she was quite famous and appreciated.

M. Dulomboy chose the highest point of the mountain according to the desire of his beloved wife.
On the third of June 1798 a large crowd of people attended the funeral of the actrice. M. Dulomboy was in the company of his five children – the youngest child was in the arms of the nanny.
The weeping crowd and the progress of the funeral made the event very impressionable and very beautiful.

The surrounding wall of the tomb

Some months after the funeral, M. Dulomboy let set up a monument respecting the model of the monument of Jean-Jacques Rousseau by taking the same artist: Lesueur.
On the east side, Marie Joly is represented in her natural size lying on the side;
On the west side you can see an epitaph:

“Here lies: Marie-Elisabeth Joly, Miss Dulomboy, the best of all mothers,
the sweetest and the most sensitive of all women, the most tender of all wives.
Beloved by nature and famous artist, Marie … aged 37 years.
People respect her mortal remains.’

On the columns and the shattered stones, Fouquet Dulomboy let gravitate verses and quotations which inspired his pain.
Today this place is guarded by Mme Kermaedic whose family was chosen by M. Fouquet-Dulomboy to look after the sepulture. Many tourists come to visit this place under the guardianship of Mme Kermaedic.

Useful informations

Opening dates and times
The Tomb of Marie Joly can be visited on every Saturday and Sundays afternoons from 15.00, and every afternoon in July and August (except bad weather conditions).

Rates
Entrance fee is 0,20 € to help the tomb being well kept and flowery.