Sèvres:- Monday, 27. January 1997:- A week ago Wednesday, coming back from the Porte de Pantin, making the change from the métro to the train at La Défense, guys were handing out newspaper facsimiles, used by the SNCF as PR. I refused to take one; I had a ton of stuff in my bag to read.

This ton was weighing on me as I waited on the platform. My eyes slumped to my shoes - to one of these discarded papers on the ground - a four-page reprint of Le Parisien - and this photo of a house was looking at me.

I bent down and picked it up. The headline over the photo was, 'Gambetta S'expose Chez Balzac,' and over that, 'Cinq Minutes d'Arrêt a... Sèvres.'

'Nice house,' I thought. 'Hmm, Balzac - I haven't done him. I used to live in Sèvres. I wonder where this interesting-looking house is?'

I 'wondered' because there are two train stations in Sèvres - one for the RER line 'C' to Versailles, on the Parc de Saint Cloud side, up the hill - by Ville d'Avray - that comes from Saint Lazare, through La Défense, and goes to Versailles. Near where I lived, on the other side of the valley, there is the regular SNCF line from Montparnasse to Versailles.

My idea was - this Balzac house in Sèvres, is a sort of extension of the article on Boulogne just across the river I did a couple of weeks ago. The problem is, I know nothing about Balzac, but, I reason - at 'Balzac's House' there is sure to be something about him. The house is only open for 90 minutes three days a week, so I go today.

Just to be perverse, I drive my tin-can car to Sèvres instead of taking the SNCF train. Although it is a fair distance, I take the A13 autoroute to the last exit before the Saint Cloud tunnel, and run straight into the Ville d'Avray and on to Sèvres, which is right beside it. It takes 15 minutes from my garage in all. With the change at Saint Cloud, it would take more than 30 by train, plus walking time.

The house is on the steep avenue Gambetta in Sèvres. This road actually divides it from Ville d'Avray and I have to drive around a bit to find it and even longer to find a parking space. It is quite steep on this flank - as it is on the other too - of this valley Sèvres is in, and from years ago I remember walking down my east side and up the west side to the park.

After passing the monument and the statue, I find to door to the garden locked. My watch says it should be open. What if it is 'by appointment' only? There is a button, a 'sonnerie,' and I push it.

The door is unlocked from inside and a lady, who turns out to be Mme Carle, lets me in. There was a car with UK plates parked nearby, so I figure there are others here to view the 'Balzac House,' known as 'la Maison des Jardies.'

There is a little graveled yard in front and a good fan-light over a central door, but we go in the first door instead. Since I find it amusing that I am here on account of a story I 'picked up' in a discarded paper, I tell Mme Carle about how I came to be at 'Balzac's House.'

She says I must have read it in Le Parisien. I agree.

She says, Le Parisien got it wrong. Balzac never lived in this house.

She points out a 'rustic' double-decker buffet just inside the door of the kitchen we came in. The ceiling in this room is low, and the top, ornate part, of the buffet is cut off. She says this is Balzac's furniture; the sole piece.

One time, when Balzac was flush, he bought this property, in lots, between 1837 and '38 - which went from the - now - avenue Gambetta, along the rue des Jardies, all the way to the train station. This 'Maison des Jardies' was the gardener's house; and Balzac, chased by the repossessors, stashed the buffet here - after its top was cut off so it would fit inside. Balzac did not live in this house, nor did he write much here. After living no more than a few months altogether in Sèvres he left for good in 1840.

It means that I will not learn anything about Honoré de Balzac here.

Instead Mme Carle tells me about Léon Gambetta. He did live here, occasionally in 1875 and '76, and he bought the house, which was built in 1771, on 10. August 1878. Today this house is as he left it when he died in it on 31. December 1882 at the age of 44.

In Paris, in the 20th arrondissement, there are the avenue, running along the north side of Pére Lachaise, the passage and place Gambetta, where the mairie is. They were named after Gambetta in 1893.

At this moment, and until Sunday, 6. April, there is a exposition at the house, entitled, 'Léon Gambetta, un Saint Pour la République?' This exposition assembles documents concerning Gambetta from the Haut-de-Seine archives, together with artifacts that belong to the house as a historical monument. It is one of only three such houses open in France; the other two being the birthplace of Marshal Foch at Tarbe and the house of Georges Clemenceau at Saint Vincent-sur-Jard in the Vendée.

Since a decree dated 26. April 1995, the 'Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites' has had its mission redefined, with a new emphasis on making the sites not only open to the public, but attractive as well. The second part of the decree concerns having a coherent editorial policy concerning the history of the 100-odd sites under its control.

Part of this 'coherent editorial policy' is the refusal to permit the press to photograph the sites without some sort of permission and/or without paying some sort of fee.

It was only after I was inside the house that I was told by Mme Carle that I wouldn't be able to photograph the interior; a house that belongs ultimately to the people of France, the home of a premier republican, that was donated by the owner's family to the country and its people.

One of the goals of the 'Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques et des Sites' is to attract, not only residents, but foreigners as well, to historic sites. Visitors help the taxpayers maintain these sights; journalists spread the word.

With that off my chest and with an apology for the lack of photos of some of the interesting objects inside the house, I am pleased to say that Mme Carle is a very knowledgeable and witty guide and that the Maison de Gambetta is well worth the trip to Sèvres.

Mme Carle is also a Gambetta fan.

Léon Gambetta was born in 1838 in Cahors. Léon's father wanted him to go into trade, but instead he went into law by studying it at the Sorbonne, beginning in 1860. In 1868 he first gained attention in the 'Baudin Trial' by giving a brilliant two-day argument for the defence of a journalist, who was accused of having organized a subscription in favor of the national deputy, Baudin, who had been killed on the barricades during a coup d'etat against the Empire, in 1851.

In May 1869 Gambetta was elected as a national deputy and became head of the minority Republicans. France declared war on Prussia on 19. July 1870 and by September was without an executive branch or an army, and Napoléon III was taken prisoner.

On 4. September, Gambettta, as minister of the interior, proclaimed the Republic. He left Paris by balloon on 7. October 1870 to organise an army at Tours and raised 600,000 men. With other republican armies, no headway was made against the Prussians, and a preliminary peace was signed in February 1871. Gambetta resigned and went to St. Sebastian.

In July he was back, to begin a lengthy consolidation of the republican ideals and the idea of a republic. This effort saw the birth of the Third French Republic in January 1875. His ideas fueled the change from conservative majority in 1871, to an outright republican majority in 1879. France has remained a republic since then.

Léon Gambetta lasted only 70 days as 'Grand Ministre,' to the end of January 1882. But in the time of his short career he managed to introduce important concepts that continue today.

Gambetta created, for the first time, the post of Minister for Agriculture; in effect giving the majority of the population their own minister for the first time. He also created the post of Minister of Industry and Arts, which is equivalent to the Minister of Culture today - as Gambetta's new ministry was responsible for the erection of the Tour Eiffel - a combination of industry and art. Other Gambetta ideas included free non-religious schools for all and free trade unions.

Although in favor of the return of Alsace from Germany, Léon Gambetta was against seeking revenge, only too aware that German's had sought revenge in 1870 for Napoléon's deeds early in the century. This idea was proved too far-sighted by two further wars in this century.

However, he recognized the existence of a new level in society - the 'petit' and 'moyen bourgeoisie,' and foresaw that the peasantry would pragmatically turn to republicanism as the landed nobility became ineffectual. Today, farmers are more likely to be thinking like union members than independent peasants.

Two accidents caused Léon Gambetta's premature death. First, he shot himself in his garden in a finger by accident on 27. November 1882, and second the un-or-undertreated wound killed him a little over a month later. He had a state funeral.

But aside from all this, a visit to his house in Sèvres is a visit to a fairly modest home dating to the 1880's. The bathroom had no running water, but the original central heating works fine.

The surrounding area is very pleasant and there are great variety of house styles well worth seeing, and there is an entry to the Parc de Saint Cloud just a few steep blocks up the avenue Gambetta. Bring a camera by all means, because there are also some good views across the valley.

If you come by train, as the SNCF would like, the house is about a five-minute walk from the station at Sèvres-Ville-D'Avray. Straight and to the left out of the little place, into the rue des Jardies, brings you right to it.

You can also ride the métro to the Pont de Sèvres, get a bus to Sèvres, and do a bit of hill climbing. It will be worth the effort.

The effort I will have to put in now is find out where Balzac really lived.

Exposition: 'Léon Gambetta, un Saint Pour la République?'
Maison des Jardies, 14. Avenues Gambetta, 92310 Sèvres.
Guided visit: Monday, Friday and Saturday; from 14:30 to 16:00.
Tel. or Fax.: 01 45 34 61 22.

Entry: 25 francs and reduced, 15 francs. Under 12, free.
The book for the exposition: contains previously unpublished documents;136 pages, 60 francs.

Note: this exposition will be also shown at the Panthéon from 2. May until 11. November; and at Gambetta's birthplace of Cahors, from September to 11. November 1997.