Point de Vue: "Blason and renown: Lou de Laâge de Meux

Lou de Laâge, January 18, 2024, attends the French Cinema Awards in Paris. VICTOR AUBRY/SIPA

The ravishing Lou de Laâge de Meux, for l'état-civil, has twice been nominated for a César for Best Emerging Actress, and is the winner of the 2016 Prix Romy-Schneider, for Les Innocentes, and the 2022 International Emmy Awards, for Le Bal des folles. Born in Bordeaux, her father Dominique de Laâge was a journalist with Sud-Ouest, but came from a Saintonge family that settled in the Orléanais region, then in Paris, in the 18th century. An accomplished artist, both on stage and screen, Lou nevertheless descends from a line of "receveurs des tailles" and "fermiers généraux", i.e. tax collectors, ennobled by the office of "conseiller-secrétaire du roi", in 1759 and 1784.

"Azure a chevron Or between in chief two roses slipped and leaved Or, and in base a falcon supported by a closed hand Or" Rights reserved

The first known ancestor is Hélie de Laâge, who died in 1630 and married Gabrielle Chevalier. It was their grandson Hélie-Jacques de Laâge (1676-1729), sieur de Meux - today a village in the Charente-Maritime department -, who joined the two names. Jérôme de Laâge (1720-1804), who became "seigneur" of Meux, Vouzon and seigneur-chatelain of La Motte-Beuvron, Sologne, is Lou's tenth-generation ancestor. The family was also distinguished by a number of prelates, including Jesuit Father Clément de Laâge, author of the Vie du bienheureux Antoine Baldinucci, general councillors and deputies. And closer to home, with Major Joseph de Laâge de Meux, who died for France at Maissin, Belgium, in 1914, and the pilot and second-in-command of the Escadrille La Fayette, Alfred de Laâge de Meux, who died in action on May 23, 1917.

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By Gabriel de Penchenade

Published November 25, 2024