Norbert Bézard

The defender of the countryside

Norbert Bézard

Norbert Bézard had lived several lives in one. Born in Loué in 1896, he was a baker, farm worker, Renault employee… but above all an artist and activist. It was probably as an activist that he met Le Corbusier. Legend has it that Bézard went to Paris to defend the countryside, while the leaders were thinking only of cities and their restructuring and Le Corbusier was in the midst of thinking about the “ville radieuse”, Bézard wanted his counterpart with the “ferme radieuse”. The two men met and worked together on this unprecedented project to modernize the countryside. Even if the project never saw the light of day. Two worlds crossed and, above all, got along. Bézard and Le Corbusier remained friends for the rest of their lives, and exchanged many letters.

Norbert Bézard was also a painter and ceramist. These were arts he cultivated late in life, but which gave life to many of his works. Here too, he didn’t “do things by halves”, and remained a committed man to the end of his life.