"Sans doute en novembre je me naturalise belge un jour ou deux, ce qui nous permettra de nous rencontrer autour du verre de l'amitié..."

Signed manuscript card of 19 lines from 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 Jean Giono.
A date (18.10.93) and the mention "Saint Frédo" ["Saint Frédo"] (a book by Alphonse Boudard recently published) inscribed in pencil and blue pen on the card by André Tillieu.
Envelope included.
"Vieux,
Merci cent mille fois pour cet admirable papier qui complète celui de Louis (Nucéra) dans le journal du dimanche. Les fautes ? Les éditeurs ne nous donnent plus un second jeu d'épreuves... d'où ces bavures ! Si j'épuise le 1er tirage, je ferai corriger. Je croise les doigts... la période est dure dans les librairies comme ailleurs. Sans doute en novembre je me naturalise belge un jour ou deux, ce qui nous permettra de nous rencontrer autour du verre de l'amitié. Ton pote Al." ["Old friend,
Thank you a hundred thousand times for this admirable article which complements that of Louis (Nucéra) in the Sunday paper. The errors? Publishers no longer give us a second set of proofs... hence these blunders! If I exhaust the first printing, I'll have them corrected. I'm crossing my fingers... times are hard in bookshops as elsewhere. No doubt in November I'll become Belgian for a day or two, which will allow us to meet over the glass of friendship. Your mate Al."]
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 irreverent Parisian writer quickly showed him his friendship, considering him 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 thus became part of the small circle of Alphonse Boudard's true friends alongside le Gros Georges (Georges Brassens), le Niçois (Louis Nucéra) and René Fallet, with whom he loved to share hearty well-watered meals and cycling trips. As death gradually took away his best friends, André Tillieu remained one of Alphonse's very last mates.