Josephine Baker, Georges Simenon

Et l'amour : si étrangement confortable se trouverait l'amour dans ce café où tout s'arrange pour provoquer des regards et des coups d'oeil.
(Louis Aragon, Le Paysan de Paris)

And love: how strangely comfortable love would find itself in this cafe where everything contrives to provoke looks and glances.
(Louis Aragon, Paris Peasant)

For many of his readers Simenon means Maigret, and Maigret means Gabin, however there was a time, long ago, when l'homme à la pipe was young and was also looking amazingly young. For Simenon - Maigret - Gabin love was a thickness that was not good to catch, however there was a time, long ago, when the writer was crazy about Josephine Baker, and she was crazy about him, too. The photo above was taken in 1925 at La Coupole - only Simenon was already married, so he took the job of part-time secretary of Josephine, to explain to his wife his continual presence near the great dancer.

The relationship didn't last too long, as Simenon was afraid to not become Mr. Josephine - anyway he remained well known not only for his books, but also for his very agitated sentimental life. And if we look for the character of the author, not for his hero, we will find out that the creator of Maigret was in his real life the man who wasn't Maigret.

Some time in the thirties Josephine Baker gave a couple of performances in Bucharest, and the event remained in the memory of the city. A good friend of mine, Marius Dobrin, found this old photo, funny witness for the impact of the brief presence of Josephine in the Romanian capital.