Gérard is the elder cousin of Alphonse, with whom he shares the social fabric of a Parisian quarter during the troubled years of the Fronda. His presence in Paris is discreet: his deafness keeps him out of the conspiracies hatched by his contemporaries in taverns and courtyards.
He is little given to the affairs of the moment and moves among the same places Alphonse frequents, more from the inertia of kinship than by inclination. Elderly and somewhat distant, he appears in the records as an involuntary witness rather than an actor.
Spanish entry: Gérard