Adrien PAUL (1890 - 1967)
Commercial Director Bugatti Molsheim from 1928 to 1939

Adien Paul was born in France, in the Basque country, on November 22 1890, the same day as General De Gaulle, whom he had greatly admired. Adrien Paul's father, Hermann Paul, was a painter, well known in Paris and in the Camargue region. He studied automobile engineering, and when he was 24 years old, when the war of 1914 was declared, he was inducted into the Army, first in the Infantry, and then at his request, he was transferred to the Air Force. He finished the war as a bomber pilot on Farman aircrafts. Discharged in 1918, he started his professional carrier at Renault in Boulogne Billancourt where he stayed for 10 years.

Married in 1917 with Andree Leroy (born in 1892), they lived in Marly near Paris. He had 3 children with his first wife: Francoise-Marie born in 1918, Rosine-Aimee born in 1921 and Jean-Jacques born in 1925. Unfortunatly, his spouse died in 1928 due to childbirth complications and Adrien Paul found himself a widower.

In May or June 1928, he was named Commercial Director of BUGATTI in Molsheim while still living with his father in Meudon, a Paris suburb.  Pauline Menard-Dorian, the second wife of Hermann Paul, introduced him to a 22 year-old Norwegian girl, Gudrun Lie, who was then retained as an au pair for his 3 children, the oldest being only 10 years old.  Adrien Paul fell in love with Gudrun Lie, but her father Doctor Olaf Lie, a physician in Oslo, ordered his daughter to return to Norway as he felt that Paris was too dangerous a place for a young girl.  Adrien Paul did not give up and made the trip to Oslo in 1929 to ask Dr. Lie for his daughter's hand. The meeting was successful,  Dr.Lie seemed impressed with Adrien and gave his consent.  The wedding took place in Meudon in 1929. They immediately relocated to Obernai in Alsace, 12 kilometers from Molsheim, with the children.

From this union, 2 chidren were born:  Olaf, born in Strasbourg in 1932, and Erik, born in Oslo in 1937. We are grateful to Olaf Paul for having given us access to familly records and numerous photographs, most of them unpublished.  Olaf Paul does not have many detailed recollections of that period in Alsace, but his mother had frequently  shared happy memories of that same period even though her husband was frequently absent from home, spending most of his time at work in Molsheim.  Mrs. Paul became very close to Jean Bugatti who at that time was barely 20 years old and who often came to their home in Obernai. They occasionally went skiing together and also attended some local car races.  According to Olaf Paul, his mother thought the world of Jean and his accidental death in August of 1939 was an enormous shock. Olaf Paul remembers Roland and confirms that the youngest son  of the Bugatti's, who was born in 1922, felt somewhat abandonned by his parents, his father frequently absent and his mother seldom home. It is for that reason that Roland became attached to Mrs. Paul who often brought him home. Olaf Paul also still remembers his father coming home every evening, always driving a different type of Bugatti. Mrs. Paul also became very attached  to several of Bugatti's drivers such as Veyron, Wimille and Robert Benoit, all friends of Jean Bugatti. They all often met at the Hotel "Le Pur Sang" or during the many car races.

Several weeks after the accidental death of Jean Bugatti, August 11, 1939, World War II was declared which forced the expulsion of all non Alsacien residents.  One day, in October 1939, Adrien called his wife at home in Obernai and told her to pack a few suitcases, saying that he was sending Pierre Veyron in the middle of the night to take the whole family to the train station in Belfort. From there, Mrs Paul and the children took a train to Bordeaux and then to the Basque Country where they had family to take them in. Adrien Paul stayed in Molsheim where he oversaw the packing and loading  of machinery and equipment to be shipped to Bordeaux where the factory would continue its activities, this time for the Ministry of Air.

On arriving in Bordeaux, Adrien Paul was reunited with his familly. The German authorities quickly took possession of the factory and Adrien Paul  resigned, being unwilling to collaborate. This for him, was the end of his association will BUGATTI. He left for Lyon to look for work while his family settled in Cruseilles near Annecy in Haute Savoie. While there, his wife got involved in the Resistance which was very active in that region.  Adrien Paul rarely came to visit his family and no one really knows where he worked during those war years except that he was also very involved in the Resistance, Lyon being somewhat its capital.

After the Liberation, the family returned to Obernai to try to recuperate what was left behind, then went on and settled in Paris where Adrien Paul took a position as Director for the company called Societe de Transports Automobiles (STA).  His real passion was still Aviation, and in 1959 he accepted the position of Commercial Director for a company which still exists, the Societe d'Entretien et de Constuctions Aeronautiques at the Le Bourget airport. The family settled first in St.Cloud, then, after the children had left, in an appartment in Paris 16th arrondissement. In 1962, Adrien Paul was 72 years old and was forced to retire. He felt hurt and considered this forced retirement like being fired.  Extremely disappointed, he decided to sell the appartment in Paris and to move to Norway where he and his spouse settled in a small town south of Oslo.

Adrien Paul died in Oslo in 1967 at the age of 77 years old. He is buried in Gjovik, Norway with his spouse Gudrun who died in 1994 at the age of 88 years old.

Many thanks to Olaf Paul, son of Adrien Paul, for his patience, his family archives, the English translation of this text
and for the confidence he gave me with so much kindness