It was on the morning of 17 July that the very reverend Father left us going to Vichy for a while and to go to his home place and then to Notre Dame du Laus to recuperate from the physical and moral trials which had challenged him to an extreme degree in recent times.

Fr. Crepon came a few moments before Father’s departure and asked for his blessing which he received, as did Frs. Jean, Leon, and Alphonse to whom he was giving a class at that moment.

Fr. Stafford helped Father to prepare the necessities of the journey. We waited to say goodbye to him as he passed the library.

I had had a sort of promise that I would to join Father at Le Laus. - He left me behind he said, only so as not to take me to Vichy, to people I did not know and where I would be embarrassed. - I also said goodbye to him. I embraced him! And I said in his ear: “Must I give up on my journey Father?” - “We will see”, he answered me. “The good God will arrange this on the way”.

Fr. Stafford accompanied Father to the railway Station. He left us at around 8.05. There was the consolation of accompanying him to the wagon and receiving a last embrace from him.

That was on a Friday. Father had preached the evening before in the Chapel on the necessity of Communion. Some days went by, we received no news. The following Tuesday, I wrote to Father to remind him of his promise. Alas! I later found my letter hidden on the chest of drawers in Father’s room.

What day did he leave Vichy? That has to be determined.

What is certain, is that on Tuesday morning he took the train from Lyon to Grenoble. He arrived towards nine thirty.

This text is transcribed from a copy preserved in the Archives of the French Province in Paris. The Punctuation has been slightly adjusted for ease of reading.
The copy from the Paris archive has as its title, in Fr. J. Lavigne’s writing, “Notes of very Rev. Fr. Tesniere (Bro. Albert) on the last days of Blessed Peter Julian Eymard”.