Adventurous reading: my library

Monsieur Roman! The name alone sparks my imagination, like that of Surcouf who since my childhood has let me set sail without leaving land.
Monsieur Roman was my teacher at the Lycée Jacques Cartier in Saint-Malo, and the French corsair Surcouf was one of the heroes of my childhood. So I’ll let myself be carried once more as I used to, revealing the roads that made me run towards the sea. Standing before the horizon I would paint with my imagination this adventure that here, more than elsewhere, draws us in. This was all the easier for me as the house I had just left, that house on the hilltop at the heart of the town of Cancale, where I was born and continue to “stir up” my dreams, had played host to the young Surcouf. His mother, Madame Surcouf, came here often to visit two young women who were friends and owned the house known as Bricourt at that time.

I’ve read innumerable books about Surcouf but this new biography takes the reader even further by re-establishing the truths that sometimes became lost in the legend. What made this possible? In part it’s the proximity of the sites – sites that are haunted by the stories that were born and died here. Despite the destruction of its Old Town in 1944, Saint-Malo has preserved a singular and unique link with its past. But proximity doesn’t explain everything. It takes work to capture the essential elements that constitute a life.