Home of General Dumas at Villers-Cotterets, 1902 (b/w photo)

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (1762-1806) son of Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (1714-86) and a black slave, Marie-Cessette Dumas; born on the French Caribbean island colony of Saint Domingue (now called Haiti); first mixed race general in the French army; he married Marie-Louise Labouret in 1792 and their son was the writer and novelist, Alexandre Dumas (1802-70) who later was to fictionalise his father's life and exploits in the novel 'The Three Musketeers'; after an initial brilliant military career, Dumas fell into disfavour with Napoleon who denied him a pension and he retired in 1802 to Villers-Cotterêts, a quiet village near Paris and the home of his wife's family who ran the auberge there;