"Je deviens de + en + niçois sous la protection, bien sûr, du cher Louis qui arrive tout de même à pédaler dans les collines malgré les ennuis de santé de Suzanne..."

Manuscript dated and signed letter of 37 lines by Alphonse Boudard to his great friend and companion of well-watered lunches, the Brussels journalist André Tillieu who was, like Alphonse Boudard, a great friend of Georges Brassens but also of Louis Nucéra.
Two fold marks inherent to the letter's insertion in the envelope, envelope included.
"Vieux,
Je deviens de + en + niçois sous la protection, bien sûr, du cher Louis (Louis Nucéra) qui arrive tout de même à pédaler dans les collines malgré les ennuis de santé de Suzanne. Un mal difficile à cerner mais qui la fait souffrir beaucoup. Merci de ta chaleureuse lettre. Là, j'ai voulu faire du pur divertissement. Une petite suite pour sexualité ecclésiastique. Bien sûr je soigne toujours le paysage historique ; c'est ce qui donne de l'épaisseur, une dimension de vérité à l'aventure de Mme Blandine. Tes références à Sartre sont plaisantes... je n'y avais pas pensé. Je me suis surtout efforcé de faire un roman genre XVIIIe... Restif, Crébillon ou même "les infortunes de la vertu" de Sade. un Sade gentillet après tout. En septembre ou octobre je vais me propulser en Belgique pour la promotion du livre. Je te ferai signe à l'avance pour qu'on puisse casser la graine de l'amitié. Mon ami le metteur en scène Jacques Rosny a tiré un spectacle avec des extraits de la Cerise, les Combattants etc... Il fera une escale de quelques jours dans un théâtre à Liège. Si tu veux y faire un tour , tu pourras me dire si tu peux y faire un tour, tu pourras me dire ce que tu en penses. J'espère que les choses vont bien pour toi et les tiens... Donc à bientôt... avec mon amitié. ABoudard." ["Old friend,
I'm becoming more and more from Nice under the protection, of course, of dear Louis (Louis Nucéra) who still manages to pedal in the hills despite Suzanne's health problems. An illness difficult to pinpoint but which makes her suffer greatly. Thank you for your warm letter. Here, I wanted to create pure entertainment. A little sequel for ecclesiastical sexuality. Of course I always take care with the historical landscape; that's what gives depth, a dimension of truth to Madame Blandine's adventure. Your references to Sartre are pleasant... I hadn't thought of that. I mainly tried to write an 18th-century genre novel... Restif, Crébillon or even Sade's "les infortunes de la vertu". A gentle Sade after all. In September or October I'm going to propel myself to Belgium for the book's promotion. I'll let you know in advance so we can break bread in friendship. My friend the director Jacques Rosny has created a show with excerpts from la Cerise, les Combattants etc... He'll make a stop of a few days at a theater in Liège. If you want to take a look, you can tell me what you think of it. I hope things are going well for you and yours... So see you soon... with my friendship. ABoudard."]
André Tillieu from Brussels, very close friend and biographer of Georges Brassens, maintained an epistolary correspondence with Alphonse Boudard for almost thirty years, from 1972 until the latter's death in 2000.
The witty Parisian writer quickly demonstrated his friendship to him, considering him as one of the rare critics to understand him perfectly to the point of clearly explaining in his reviews what he himself expressed only incompletely and sometimes confusedly in his books.
André Tillieu therefore became part of the small circle of Alphonse Boudard's true friends on the same level as le Gros Georges (Georges Brassens), le Niçois (Louis Nucéra) and René Fallet with whom he liked to share hearty, well-watered meals and cycling excursions. As death gradually took away his best friends one by one, André Tillieu remained one of Alphonse's very last pals.