Jean Cocteau in Milly
“Novelist, playwright and filmmaker, painter and draughtsman, he chose Milly-la-Forêt as his refuge from 1947 until his final breath.”
The Poet
In 1959, at the request of the Mayor and the local residents, Jean Cocteau agreed to decorate the interior of the chapel. This project was made possible by voluntary lenders, allowing the poet to bring his immense talent to this ancient building, which had just been restored.
The Artist
He chose "the Simples" as his sole theme—those medicinal plants for which Milly-la-Forêt is the historical cradle. Like a giant herbarium, Cocteau cast flowered stems upon the walls, rising like a prayer.
His star-shaped signature appears beneath the side of a candid cat, an ambivalent symbol challenging Christ's liberating angel.
The Tomb
It is here, where all is simplicity, that Jean Cocteau rests. The funerary slab bears these words of absolute fidelity:
Jean Cocteau rests for eternity beneath a large stone slab in the choir of the chapel he loved and decorated. His adopted son, the actor and painter Edouard Dermit, who passed away on May 15, 1995, now rests by his side.
The chapel commentary is performed by Mr. Jean Marais.
The tombstone was donated by Francis Palmero, Senator-Mayor of Menton, of which Jean Cocteau was an honorary citizen.
The bust of the Master was donated by Arno Breker.