31/05/2026
🌴 The three-month trip to Mallorca, which was intended to bring relief to Chopin’s ailments, ended up requiring three months of convalescence – a period the composer and George Sand spent in Marseille. The writer, who had devotedly nursed her companion through his illness, probably sensed that even after such a long course of treatment, he still needed rest. This time, the place closest to her heart was to serve as a refuge – the family estate in Nohant.
On 1 June 1839, after a week-long journey, the pair and Sand’s two children finally arrived in the countryside. While still in Marseille, the writer had ordered a piano from Pleyel, which was to await Chopin at home as a surprise.
✒️ ‘I am now at home, happy’, she wrote to Charlotte Marliani upon her arrival. ‘after six months of wandering by land and sea. … Chopin … is doing well, though he is thinner, more delicate and more nervous …. I have high hopes for the months he will spend in Nohant, and he wishes to stay here as long as possible’.
Under her roof, Chopin quickly regained his vitality and creative energy. That summer in Nohant, he would compose the Nocturne in G major, Op. 37 No. 2, three Mazurkas from Op. 41, and work on completing the Ballade in F major, Op. 38, the Scherzo in C sharp minor, Op. 39, and the Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35.
The writer’s house would also become his refuge for the next seven years – it was here that his most important works and happiest memories would be created, close to the ideal of family life for which he had always longed.
🎥 You can watch a short guided tour of the George Sand House, which we filmed to mark the start of the official collaboration between Nohant and the Birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin in Żelazowa Wola in 2023:
https://youtu.be/vgQghsQRuOo
