Editing Hercule Poirot (section)

===Origins===
Christie was purposely vague about Poirot's origins, as he is thought to be an elderly man even in the early novels. In ''An Autobiography,'' she admitted that she already imagined him to be an old man in 1920. At the time, however, she did not know that she would write works featuring him for decades to come.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=An Autobiography |date=2017-05-04 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-731466-9 |publication-date=2017-05-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Havlíčková |first=Andrea |date=2008-11-10 |title=Agatha Christie and her Great Detective (based on Poirot Investigates and Hercule Poirot's Christmas, reflecting 1920s and 1930s) |url=https://is.muni.cz/th/74475/ff_b/?lang=en;zoomy_is=1 |website=Masaryk University Information System |publication-place=Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno}}</ref>

A brief passage in ''The Big Four'' provides original information about Poirot's birth or at least childhood in or near the town of [[Spa, Belgium]]: "But we did not go into Spa itself. We left the main road and wound into the leafy fastnesses of the hills, till we reached a little hamlet and an isolated white villa high on the hillside."{{sfn|Christie|2004b|loc=Chapter 16}} Christie strongly implies that this "quiet retreat in the [[Ardennes]]"{{sfn|Christie|2004b|loc=Chapter 17}} near Spa is the location of the Poirot family home.
 
An alternative tradition holds that Poirot was born in the village of [[Ellezelles]] (province of Hainaut, Belgium).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://magazine.bellesdemeures.com/en/luxury/lifestyle/province-hainaut-village-ellezelles-adopts-detective-hercule-poirot-article-27759.html|title=In the province of Hainaut, the village of Ellezelles adopts detective Hercule Poirot|website=Belles Demeures|date=10 September 2018 |language=en-gb|access-date=17 December 2018}}</ref> A few memorials dedicated to Hercule Poirot can be seen in the centre of this village. There appears to be no reference to this in Christie's writings, but the town of Ellezelles cherishes a copy of Poirot's birth certificate in a local memorial 'attesting' Poirot's birth, naming his father and mother as Jules-Louis Poirot and Godelieve Poirot.

Christie wrote that Poirot is a Catholic by birth,<ref>,!-- "Hercule Poirot was a Catholic by birth."--> {{harvnb|Christie|1947a}}</ref> but not much is described about his later religious convictions, except sporadic references to his "going to church" and occasional invocations of ''"le bon Dieu"''.{{efn|In ''[[Taken at the Flood]]'', Book II, Chapter 6 Poirot goes into the church to pray and happens across a suspect with whom he briefly discusses ideas of sin and confession.<ref>{{harvnb|Christie|1948}}</ref>}} Christie provides little information regarding Poirot's childhood, only mentioning in ''Three Act Tragedy'' that he comes from a large family with little wealth, and has at least one younger sister. Apart from French and English, Poirot is also fluent in German.<ref>{{harvnb|Christie|2011|loc=Chapter 12}}</ref>