Combray Summary

The narrator remembers arriving at Combray, a town in France, just before Easter one year. The family regularly travels there to visit his great aunt, who lives alone with her servants, in a large home. The family arrives by train and enters the small town, which is old and dark and dominated by a large church, and the streets are all named after Saints.

The Great Aunt is always suffering from imaginary ailments and never leaves her house. The Narrator describes in considerable detail his days in Combray, the long walks with his father or alone, his Aunt's chatter and gossip with her friend Eulalie, and the interaction of his Aunt and her cook, Francoise. The Narrator tells of his Aunt's established and rigid routines of the day; how the routine never varies except for dinner taking place an hour earlier on Saturdays...