Philippe Vuillemin
Georges Bernier, alias Professor Choron, died January 10, 2005. He was 75 years old. The few death notices that appeared in the French press mainly focused on the scatological nature of his humor, or on the good man's provocative side. No one recalled the essential, which was that with his passing not only had one of the great proprietors of the French press disappeared, but he'd taken with him an artist in his own right, quite unique in his own way : Professor Choron.
Professor Choron recounts with his memories as a child of a barrier guard, the 2nd World War with its horrors and the trains he saw during those years leaving for Germany or coming from there, full of French or German soldiers, in conquest or in rout according to the period
In 1856, fresh from life with nuns in an orphanage school, Alexina Barbin comes to a coastal village in La Rochelle to teach the village girls. She is deeply religious. She shares the classroom and a bedroom with the young and vivacious Sara, with whom she falls in love. Alexina has another secret: her gender is mysterious. She and Sara begin a scandalous love affair, but Alexina seeks marriage and social acceptance. She discloses her secrets to the village priest, to her mother, to the bishop, and to the bishop's physician. After the church and court rule on her petition, marriage to Sara becomes Alexina's sole purpose and hope.
