Live joyfully, live Rabelais!
On Wednesday, March 8, students, doctors, staff, and friends of the University gathered at the Jardin des Plantes to inaugurate the restored Rabelais monument. This was an opportunity for the Montpellier student association to reaffirm its connection with the French writer, a former student of the Montpellier Faculty of Medicine, but also with his philosophy, summed up in the famous phrase: "Live joyfully!"
About twenty of them stand out among the small crowd that slips into Montpellier's botanical garden on this foggy morning of March 8. Proudly wearing their traditional caps, the medical students of Montpellier have their eyes fixed on the Rabelais monument, their monument, finally restored thanks to the support of the University, the Faculty of Medicine, and the indispensable Jardin des Plantes Business Foundation, which kindly agreed to accompany them in this project of great emotional and symbolic value. "This monument, which was inaugurated 102 years ago, and this thought from Rabelais still say a lot about the students of Montpellier, "said Camille Pelissier, president of the Montpellier medical student association. "It is the very essence of our folklore and our values, which we pass on from year to year and which are so dear to us."
In the folklore of medical students
And while this folklore remains largely the preserve of insiders, the students present that morning were happy to share their memories of the "carabinage." This is an annual ceremony held at the foot of the monument, where aspiring medical students who have completed their second year are inducted into the fraternity. Custom dictates that after taking the oath, each student takes a photo at the back of the sculpture, where the writer's famous maxim is engraved in stone: "Live joyfully!" "We are studying difficult subjects," continues Camille Pelissier, "so it's important for us to emphasize this celebration of life's pleasures."
In 1921, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier, the medical students of the time commissioned this work from the sculptor Jacques Villeneuve, who named it "En vin vérité" (In Wine Truth). Beneath the bust of Rabelais overlooking the monument, the faces of Pantagruel and Gargantua frame a bas-relief depicting a scene from a farce written and performed at the time by Rabelais on Rue de la Loge. In the foreground, an allegory of the Faculty of Medicine in the guise of a woman in professorial dress leans over Hippocrates' Aphorisms, translated into Greek by Rabelais. Finally, on the right, a medical student faces Rabelais and holds out a cup of wine in his right hand.
The cup is full again
A cup that had mysteriously disappeared into the mists of time and which this restoration brings back from the past. "Gaps are normally part of a monument's history. No one would think of adding the missing parts of the Venus de Milo, but in the case of this cup, there was a point in restoring it," explains Pierre-Jean Trabon, the heritage architect who led the restoration with the approval of the Drac. "We participated in all the site meetings," continues Camille Pelissier. " The meaning of this monument is passed down from generation to generation, and we had knowledge of details that were not known to the architects." Details that the cleaning of the stone overgrown with vegetation, as well as the repointing of the stones and the redevelopment of the surrounding area, reveal once again in all their beauty.
And it is to celebrate this rediscovered beauty and the certainty that generations of students will continue to celebrate the Rabelaisian art of living that the medical students of Montpellier ended this ceremony with a toast to accompany the words of their president:
"Fellow medical students, before our master François Rabelais, let us raise our glasses with him and, above all, never forget to live joyfully!"
Health.