Durand

Research Status: Moderate Diary Coverage: 1873-04-07 to 1883-12-01 (the family tag runs 1873-1882)

Identity

The Durand family of Nice: a Spanish family with a French surname. The Mon Journal t.3 index lists «Durand (Mlle Clémentine), Espagnole» and «Durand (Mlle Lucie), Espagnole»; Marie's own gibe «Carmen de Ballen de Guzman de Durand» (041.0016) and the «monsieur espagnol, un ami de la famille» (041.0069) point the same way, and 041.0150 puts them in «l'essaim espagnol, les Gonzalès, les Durand». The family consists of:

• Mme Durand (also "Mme de Durand"), the mother, who with her daughters shares a loge at the Nice theatre and plays a part in the Audiffret family quarrel of 1874-75 (see below).
• Clémentine, who marries John Lewin: «Melle Durand épouse de Lewin, c'est sûr» (019.0104, 1874-05-03); «le mariage de Lewin avec la Durand, qui a été célébré à la Madeleine» (024.0086, 1874-09-24). Later "la Lewin". See #Clementine_Durand, #Lewin.
• Lucie, the most prominent and "la demoiselle des plus en vogue" (029.0211); see #Lucie_Durand. Her "accent dur et large" (027.0204), her boisterous swimming and manners in the sea baths (033.0052-0054) and her friendliness to Marie (033.0345) appear often.
• Marie Durand: in 1875 rumoured to be marrying Emile d'Audiffret (041.0069).
• A younger sister («la petite Durand», 034.0110; «deux de ses petites sœurs», 017.0321) and a brother, «le petit garçon qui… se promenait en bas rouges sur le siège de leur voiture», by 1877 a handsome young man (075.0185; 080.0427, «Durand le frère des demoiselles»).
• Another sister marries M. Roux, "marquis d'Escombrera"; in 1881 Marie hears «Gambetta épouse une des Durand, sœur de la Lewin (Clémentine) et de Lucie mariée à M. Roux» (091.0583; the footnote there records that the Gambetta marriage did not happen).

Marie's view of them

They are a showy, noisy household that Marie compares herself against: «Je ne suis ni une Durand, ni une Howard, ni une Boutowsky» (033.0060); «ces Durand qui sautent, qui rient… qui grimacent comme des singes» (019.0159). Society's opinion of their standing is mixed and gossip-ridden, and the diary reports it rather than settling it:

• 1873-12-23 (014.0187): «Mmes Prodgers, Vigier, Durand, Starzinska, Labanoff-Rostouzoff» are named as the few exceptions in a theatre otherwise «rempli de cocottes».
• 1874-04-23 (018.0359): «en parlant de Lewin, de la Durand et de la Prodgers, on a dit que même Hamilton, s'il passait à Nice viendrait chez la Gioia, à Paris, certainement on ne le recevra pas»: Marie reports that these women would be received in Nice but not in Paris society.
• 1875-03-18 (030.0247): Sacha asks of the passing Lewin and Lucie Durand: «Ce sont des cocottes ?» (a question, not an answer).
• 1875-03-22 (030.0326): «je tombe dans les Durand et les Vigier».
• The Audiffret quarrel: Mme Durand «a pris une grande part» in the scandal of 1874 between old M. Audiffret and his wife (032.0165) and her role is judged «plus qu'équivoque, plus que vilain» (034.0163); by June 1875 the Durands and the Audiffrets are on bad terms (033.0452, 034.0108). Marie's own narrative of the affair is in 034.0159-0163.
• 1883-12-01 (102.0393): «les Durand, les Balandard» as a stock name for ordinary common women (see also 091.0618).

Not this family: Carolus-Duran (Charles Durand, 1837-1917), the painter (082.0544, 093.0183, 095.0098), and «la villa Durando» (005.0093).