Ideas debates with Isabelle Autissier / “Soudain, seuls”

ISABELLE AUTISSIER

Isabelle Autissier is a French sailor, the first woman to have completed a world tour in competition. She spent her youth in Saint Maur in the Paris region and discovered sailing in Brittany from the age of 6 years. In 1978, she graduated from the National Agricultural School of Rennes with a degree in Agricultural Engineering. In 1980, she conducted on behalf of the Committee of Fisheries and Marine Cultu (CORPECUM) a research on langoustines and large crustaceans. This research activity is being extended on behalf of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER) in La Rochelle on the fisheries of the Bay of Biscay. From 1984 to 1990, she taught at the Maritime and Aquaculture School of La Rochelle. In 1991, she finished 7th in the BOC Challenge, achieving the feat of being the first woman to race the world. It is this success that pushes her to devote herself entirely to ocean racing. in 1994, she and her crew beat the New York / San Francisco record of nearly two weeks. In 1996, she took part in the Vendée Globe but was forced to retire. In 1999, during the solo race around the World Around Alone (ex-Boc Challenge), she capsized and her boat stays upside down. The skipper Giovanni Soldini will come to save her. From 2005, she sailed in the polar regions, taking on board artists, scientists and sportsmen. In December 2009, she was elected president of the French branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature. Isabelle Autissier also turned to writing. After several stories, essays, and an opera libretto, "Homo Loquax", she published in 2009 her first novel, "Only the sea will remember", the story of a deception at sea inspired by a real fact: the case Crowhurst in 1969, then "the lover of Patagonia" and "Suddenly alone" who will appear on the first list of the price Goncourt. His latest novel "Forget Klara" was published in 2019.

SOUDAIN, SEULS

Through the presentation of her book Suddenly alone, Isabelle Autissier presents her point of view on societal issues such as the protection and defense of the environment. "A couple of thirty went around the world. A deserted island between Patagonia and Cape Horn. A dreamed, wild nature that turns into a nightmare. A man and a woman in love, who find themselves, suddenly, alone. Their new companions: penguins, sea lions, elephant seals and rats. How to fight against hunger and exhaustion? And if we survive, how to return to men? A novel where we travel in extreme conditions, where we shiver for these two modern Robinson. A shocking story. " The desert island is a fantasy, synonymous with nature and adventure. The urban people we are are now very far from this one. Suddenly, only tells about this disillusionment and questions, more broadly, about the current environmental problems.

THE TOUR

• Thursday, October 31, 11 am, at the French Institute of Jerusalem - Gaza (conference in French, translation in Arabic)
• Friday, November 1st, 10 am, at the Palestinian Wildlife society - Bethlehem (conference in English)
• Friday, November 1st, 4 pm, at the French Institute of Jerusalem - Chateaubriand (conference in English)