Who live in a former water mill
...are bound to wet their feet ever once in a while. Since 31 March 1999, Gilberthe Akkermans, Jouke Kleerebezem, with sons Rolf (*1993) and Roemer (*1995), live at the house which they acquired on 25 February 1999, as SCI (Société Civile Immobilière) 'Le Moulin du Merle'.
This site describes their household since June 2000, with long lapses of non- (or mainly background) activity, only genuinely building here since February 2002.
not your average site
In lemoulindumerle.com's narrative the house is the main character. Conceived as an Internet domain to expand the physical site and buildings of the Moulin du Merle, St. Germain des Bois, Nièvre, France and to be an integral part of it — to both culturally and legally belong to the real estate, picking up on its history when its main parts are 150 years old, while the original inscription in the ancient water mill part marks 1697, this house and site outlive their inhabitants, generations of users who both inform the place and are deeply informed by it.
So what's a household like here in deep France, or 'la France profonde' as metropolitan French like to name it, with a certain whatever soft nuance in their voice, 'you are where exactly?...' What's a household like when its fresh water comes from a source in the vegetable garden, gas from the bottle and electricity and its Internet connection through holes in the walls? How tempting is it to reconstruct the water mill's wheel — how tempting indeed to a variety of friends with engineering and design skills, re-inventing the wheel rather than reconstructing it, dreaming about the unlimited source of power they imagine the Beuvron river is, especially if they see it press its borders in spring time.
This is about what you can expect to be described in the 'house and inhabitants' part of the site. Here we will both try to trace back past owners and inhabitants, as well as monitor and partly reproduce our own everyday going about.
[JJK]
Past owners
A substantial insight in the Moulin's occupancy in the 18-19thC. was supplied in September 2002, by Mr. Pierre Davous, of Neuilly, who wrote:
Aubin DAVOUS ( 9 / 2 / 1704 - 20 / 3 / 1759 ) est nÈ ý CERVENON , puis est
venu habiter au Moulin du Merle. Il s'est mariÈ deux fois :
- 1er mariage : le 26 / 11 / 1726 ý Jeanne COMTE, de CERVENON, morte en
donnant naissance ý son 3Ëme enfant.
- 2Ëme mariage : le 13 / 11 / 1736 ý Perrette CHARBONNIER, de BEUVRON,
dÈcÈdÈe le 27 / 4 / 1767 ou 1769. De ce mariage sont nÈs 6 enfants. Le fils
aÓnÈ Jacques et le fils le plus jeune Cyr ont habitÈ tous deux le Moulin du
Merle :
Jacques DAVOUS ( nÈ le 14 / 9 / 1737 ) a habitÈ d'abord au Moulin du Merle,
qu'il a quittÈ pour aller habiter au MAZOT, puis ý CHAZEUIL. En quittant le
Moulin du Merle, il a donnÈ son bien ý son frËre Cyr.
Cyr DAVOUS ( 16 / 6 / 1749 - 25 / 5 /1806 ) s'est mariÈ avec FranÁoise
MILLOT, de CHARLAY, dont il a eu 3 enfants. Le fils aÓnÈ est :
Louis DAVOUS ( 21 / 3 / 1781 - 24 / 5 / 1845 ) a habitÈ au Moulin du Merle
puis ý Saint Germain des Bois, dont il a ÈtÈ Maire. Il a ÈpousÈ Anne
DAVOUS ( qui descendait de Joseph DAVOUS, frËre d'Aubin DAVOUS, citÈ plus haut ). Ils ont eu 5 enfants : 4 filles et un garÁon nommÈ Charles :
Charles DAVOUS ( nÈ le 1 / 1 / 1814 ) Ètait meunier au Moulin du Merle, et
Maire. Il a ÈpousÈ Marie-Rose LYONNET ( de DORNECY ). Ils ont eu 4 enfants (LÈon, Marie-LÈontine-Laure, Rosine-Marie-FranÁoise et Lucien) . L'aÓnÈ Ètait:
LÈon DAVOUS (nÈ en 1851) , qui est venu habiter ý ASNOIS et Ètait mariÈ ý
Hortense SEURAT. Ils ont eu deux enfants : Charles, mort jeune, et Lucien
(mÍme prÈnom que son oncle Lucien, fils de Charles).
Lucien DAVOUS ( 5 / 2 / 1885 - 25 / 10 / 1964 ) a eu 4 enfants et je suis le
plus jeune de ses enfants.
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Cinclus cinclus, Dipper, Waterspreeuw
—or the 'Merle d'Eau' which gave
Le Moulin du Merle its name
(illustration from Brehm's Tierleben)
who do live at Moulin du Merle
[GJMA] Gilberthe Akkermans, leather bag and accessory designer
[JJK] Jouke Kleerebezem, artist
[RIJK] Rolf (*1993)
[RIPK] Roemer (*1995)
who stepped by since 1999
(under construction)
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