Le pays où la mort n’existe pas

In 1940, as in 1916, Giraudoux “abandoned” wartime France for Portugal. He recovered his sight and found light again in this other France where death did not exist. But a poignant passage from La Menteuse reminds us that the land of miracles is also one of separation: from a woman, from a son, but also from war itself. Portugal does not end with “Le miracle de Viseu,” but the enigmatic “Monologue du bégonia,” which simultaneously completes and denies it.