François MITTERRAND consoles himself with the virtues of love.

François Mitterrand (1916.1996)

Autograph letter signed to Marie-Louise Terrasse, known as Catherine Langeais.

Four pages small in 4°. [Fort d’Ivry]. February 9 and 10, 1939.

« Never has my will felt more unwavering. »

Mitterrand, exhausted from his military service, consoles himself with the virtues of love.

“My beloved, I have not kept my commitment to write to you for this evening’s mail. Forgive me, I didn't have much time. This morning, I went to Fort de Vanves; there, I fired a machine gun ; then around 1 p.m., I returned to Ivry. The walk only seemed difficult to me in the very last kilometers: my shoulders were torn apart by the straps of the haversack. Tonight, my head is a little empty. For now I am writing to you from my bed: between the call and the extinction. In this position my writing and the cleanliness (see above) of my paper may leave something to be desired. I'm sorry.

Telling you that I thought of you again during this day is useless. I become a man of habit and my days are built on the same model: joy if I see you, sadness if I don't, regret for our last meeting, hope for the next. In short, you are, my Zou, a very important character. Because it is not nothing to be able to fulfill the existence of a being.

What was your day like? Tell me about this in your letter which I am waiting for. Tell me, especially if it's true, that you've been thinking about me. You made me discover this: that I believed I despised words and attached myself only to unexpressed thoughts and that in reality words are necessary for me to prevent me from doubting thoughts. Flaw of love: it obscures the sense of nuances, it demands a certain brutality; he tends to confuse nuance and doubt.

My little girl, I think that the transposition of the interior impulses into the exterior plane is poor, however wonderful it may be. Words of love lose along the way a little of the infinity that mixes with thoughts of love. Like everything that materializes a pure domain. And yet how bewitching these words are! A being is linked despite himself to his first word of love.

What power do these three words “I love you” have? It's the whole story of the world. Our whole history.

10/2. My little girl, this morning I received your letter. If you only knew the happiness your letters bring me! I so need your perpetual presence. You tell me about your fragility, and the strength that I can give you. My darling, because I love you, it seems to me that I can do anything. Never has my will felt more unwavering. And this will is ready to do anything to keep you. This influence that you have on me through the sole fact of your love was enough to give me the impetus that I lacked, the impetus that can only be attached to an essential reason for living. And then, I know that our love cannot end after everything he has given us. Wouldn't it be lamentable to see it reduced to one of his little adventures which we smile about later and which are convenient for everyone? And besides, it wouldn't be possible: there is no small adventure where the suffering of a lifetime can be born. We are fragile without each other. But we love each other. And we will never be without each other from now on. Our thoughts are united, our sweetest memories are those we knew together. My Marie-Louise who could bend our strength, to us, who binds the most wonderful of promises? I still have so much to tell you. But that will be for later. Now I'm going to leave you (not really). I hope that tomorrow will bring me morning and evening what I expect from it.

And I tell you that I love you, my little peach who will never know seasons except the most beautiful. Francis. »

Catherine Langeais (1923.1998), whose real name is Marie-Louise Terrasse, met François Mitterrand on January 28, 1938, during the École Normale Supérieure ball, with whom, although only 15 years old, she became engaged. Mitterrand wrote more than 300 letters to the woman he nicknamed Zou.