Samois-sur-Seine

We’ve been living in the village of Samois-sur-Seine for almost two months now (our house-sit ends next Monday and we’ll be homeless for a while…) so I think it’s time to post some pictures about Samois.

Samois-sur-Seine (“Samois on the Seine River”) has about 2,400 residents. It is definitely a quiet town: one bakery (just re-opened to the great hopes of residents, since the previous bakery was not well known for the quality of its bread), a butcher, a few stores, a few restaurants on the river and a couple in town, several affolantes (fancy houses built on the river in the 1800s and early 1900s) and a nice mix of other houses. It’s kind of a typical small village, really.

Our digs in Samois:

Looking down our street, rue Maximilian Lambert (whoever he was).

Our house-sit digs. This is a beautiful house, with an expanded and remodeled kitchen and living room.

Some other Samois houses…

A house on the Seine river. Nice, but what an upkeep nightmare. Of course, I guess if you can afford the house, you can afford the upkeep.

An affolant. I’ve written about these houses before. They were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, for people who lived in Paris and came here by train for weekends and vacations.

Another house on the river.

Once a florist, evidently, now a residence. Regulations often prohibit changing the façades of buildings in a downtown area (to maintain the feel of the place), so old storefronts remain, even though the building is now home to someone.

Finally, a house we can afford!

Samois’ Most Famous Person

The jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt lived here the last few years of his way-too-short life (he died here in 1953, at age 43). In the late 1920s and 1930s, Django invented a style of jazz, popularly known as “gypsy jazz” but more accurately called “manouche,” that remains crazily popular today. There are thousands of manouche jazz bands in the world still; Seattle’s Pearl Django is one of the best.

Django’s home in Samois.

Django’s grave, in the Samois cemetery. Almost always there are guitar picks on it. We paid a visit whenever we were in Samois before, and now it’s less than half a mile away.

Interestingly, the next famous person from Samois-sur-Seine is also a jazz performer. Aimée Cyrille is from here. We saw her in Seattle last year and she was amazed that we not only knew of Samois, but that we’d been there and knew people here. She is nothing short of phenomenal; if you get the opportunity to see her, do it!