Théodore Botrel

A French author, composer and performer best known for the classic "La Paimpolaise", Théodore Botrel is associated with Breton culture, of which he was a popular broadcaster in the early 20th century. Born in Dinan on September 14, 1868 to a Breton father and Alsatian mother, Jean-Baptiste Théodore-Marie Botrel began his career in amateur theater before writing his first song, "Le Petit biniou", at the age of eighteen. In 1895, while working at various odd jobs from locksmith to clerk at the Compagnie des chemins de fer, the chansonnier made a name for himself in Parisian cabarets, at the Concert Parisien and the Chat noir in Montmartre, where he performed "La Paimpolaise", composed by his pianist friend Eugène Feautrier, a song that brought him fame and was later covered by other singers such as Félix Mayol. In 1900, he created the song "Le Mouchoir rouge de Cholet" (Cholet's red handkerchief) in the town that is its emblem , his other classic, which inspired the manufacture of these fabric squares on an industrial scale in several factories. Botrel's other popular hits include "Le Petit Grégoire", a tribute to the Vendée Chouans, "Ma p'tite Mimi" during the First World War, "Par le petit doigt", "Le Couteau", "Le Diable en bouteille" and "Kenavo", covered by Jean-Pierre Marielle in the film Les Galettes de Pont-Aven (1975). In 1905, he moved to Pont-Aven, where he initiated the first Breton folk festival, and spent his summers in Sainte-Maxime, in the Var region. The singer spread Breton culture not only through his songs, but also through magazines and books such as Chansons de chez nous (1898) and Les Chansons des Petits bretons (1901). He wrote a memoir of his life, Mémoires d'un barde breton, published posthumously in 1933. Aged 56, Théodore Botrel died on July 26, 1925 in Pont-Aven, where a street was named after him, as in Dinan, Brest, Nantes and other Breton towns, as well as in Montreal (Canada). One of Botrel's descendants, his grandson Renaud Detressan, also took to the road of song, both on his own and with the group Soldat Louis.