A fellow digger from days gone by

4 August 2026

Summer is a time for unexpected encounters. Today, an old excavation companion of Don Duco’s visited the museum. In the late 1980s, the two of them stood side by side - shovels in hand - at the dump site of the Gambier factory in northern France. It turns out Philippe Canon still lives in Givet, now with a wife and child. Even after 45 years, the mutual recognition and the common interest in Givet clay pipes remain. Philippe was also deeply impressed by the tour of the museum; forty years on, countless complete Gambier pipes have been retrieved - pipes that were previously known only as archaeological fragments.

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