Neolithic markings in the native stone and an unusual concentration of megalithicdolmens and menhirs attest to the island’s early sanctity. Irish monks from Bangor, County Down, dedicated their monastery on the Île d’Yeu to Hilaire; Saint Amand, from Poitou received early training there, but it was destroyed by Viking raiders in the ninth century.
During the tenth century, monks from Marmoutier near Tours and monks of Saint-Cyprien at Poitiers built a new monastery and dedicated it to Saint Stephen. The castle built on an islet linked to the coast by a bridge is first mentioned in 1356. Since the nineteenth century Île d’Yeu has attracted many artists. Jean Rigaud (1912–1999), official painter to the French Navy, had a house there, as did Maurice Boitel (1919–2007). Jean Dufy (1888-1964) made about twenty paintings of l’Ile d’Yeu during several summer stays between 1926 and 1930.
Philippe Pétain, the proclaimed hero of Verdun during World War I who later became the leader of France’s wartime collaborationistVichy régime, was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason on Île d’Yeu. He died in a private home in Port-Joinville in 1951 and is buried in the local cemetery (Cimetière communal de Port-Joinville). The poet Marc-Adolphe Guégan, an early French exponent of haiku, lived on the island until his death in 1959. The island’s seaweeds have been the subject of studies by the French marine biologist Françoise Ardré.
[caption id="attachment_162391" align="aligncenter" width="485"] John Jacob Astor by Gilbert Stuart[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Astor family is a family known for its prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Astor family is of German origin, appearing in North America during the eighteenth century with John Jacob Astor.
John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor) was the youngest of four sons born to butcher Johann Jacob Astor and M...
