Marga d'Andurain

During her lifetime, she was accused of espionage, drug trafficking, selling pearls and diamonds on the black market, as well as killing her two husbands and godson, but none of these claims have been conclusively proven.

[1] Marguerite was born in the family of magistrate Maxime Ernest Clérisse, a judge at the Bayonne court, and housewife Marie Jeanne Diriart.

Since both Pierre and Marga came from families of annuitants, and his reluctance to quit his job, the young couple set off on a long honeymoon across Spain, Morocco and then Algeria, where their first son, Jean-Pierre, was born on December 4, 1911.

Economic difficulties forced them to return to France, but didn't stay for long: in 1912, they immigrated to Argentina, where numerous other Basque families were settling, and planned to set a horse breeding business.

This was short lived, as two years later, when the first World War broke out, they moved back to France, as Pierre wanted to fight for his homeland.

[2] The d'Andurains moved first to Algeria, then travelled to Egypt and finally settled in Syria, where Marga became the owner of the Zénobie hotel in Palmyra, where they stayed from 1927 until 1936.

Julie d'Andurain, Marga's paternal granddaughter, is a professor at the University of Lorraine, where she specializes in African and Arab history during the 19th and 20th centuries.