Église Saint-Jacques d'Illiers-Combray

Illiers-Combray

The bell tower that Proust brought into world literature still seems to watch, unchanged, over the roofs of the little town of the Beauce.

Marcel Proust spent his holidays at Illiers between 1877 and 1880 with his paternal aunt Élisabeth, in the house now turned into a museum. The church of Saint-Jacques, with its bell tower visible from afar across the plain of the Beauce, served as the direct model for the fictional church of Saint-Hilaire in "Swann's Way", the first volume of "In Search of Lost Time". In 1971, for the centenary of the writer's birth, the commune of Illiers officially took the name of Illiers-Combray.

Getting there : Church open to the public; in the immediate vicinity of the Maison de tante Léonie, the Marcel Proust museum, listed as a monument historique in 1961

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound