Other Eden
I needed to go far, to leave behind the world I knew, but without being out of synch with my life. So I traveled to France, but a France that’s on the other side of the world: The FAAT (French Austral and Arctic Territories). I knew where I was going : Between the 40th and 50th parallel, or as sailors scall it, the roaring 40th and the screaming 50th. There, in the middle of nowhere, lay the volcanic islands of St. Paul, Crozet, Kerquelen and Amsterdam, offering a glimpse of Eden in a nautical hell. A handful of exiles, scientists and military men, live here modestly, beckoned by these arctic lands that belong to no one, inhabited only by a few penguins, sea lions, seals and albatross. When you arrive here after a week of navigation, you can only be humbled as you stand on a deserted bank, bracing yourself against the wind. That’s when you realize that the adventure begins with knowing how insignificant you are in the face of mother nature.
Marie-Pierre Losfeld
