Joachim Martin

Joachim Martin (1842–1897) was a carpenter from the village of Les Crottes, in the French Alps, who left a secret diary underneath the floorboards of the Château de Picomtal [fr].

Varying between mundane observations and poignant personal opinions, the diary provides a frank look into the provincial lives of Martin and his neighbors.

Among his revelations are the fact that another villager had committed infanticide multiple times and hidden the evidence under a stable.

"[2] The floorboards were excavated in the early 2000s,[3] but the existence of the diary was not widely known until the publication of a book called Joaquim's Floorboard by historian Jacques-Olivier Boudon [fr].

He noted that the diary consists of "the words of an ordinary working man, a man of the people [...] saying things that are very personal, because he knows they will not ever be read except a long time in the future.