Five books to dream of future trips

MORNING LIST

Walking in Prévert’s footsteps in Belle-Ile, entering the temple of Abu Simbel alone, meeting mysterious Mongol horsemen in the Gobi desert… Page after page, reading is also a journey.

“I” for islands, imaginary, unreal …

Belle-Ile en Mer, Marie-Galante, Saint-Vincent… It’s not a song by Laurent Voulzy, but the Island Lovers Dictionary by Hervé Hamon. Far from being exhaustive, this pretty primer takes us to these lands surrounded by water which evoke for this traveling writer a memory, a story, a novel, a hero.

Obviously, our desires for elsewhere push us to go first to the Galapagos in the footsteps of Darwin, or on the mythical Ellis Island. But the French islands are also full of secrets to discover. In Batz (Finistère), we stroll between the palm trees of the colonial garden of Georges Delaselle; in Belle-Ile (Morbihan), dear to Prévert, we discover the story of this strange children’s penitentiary which only closed its doors in 1977; in Sein (Finistère), so low that “The clouds and the rains hardly cling to it”, we laugh at Brigitte’s bar, with the 200 islanders who live there year-round, before looking for Dumas’s shadow at the Château d’If. A book like a breath of fresh air, to peck from island to island.

“Dictionary of island lovers”, by Hervé Hamon (Plon, 720 p., € 27).

To dream of Italy, also read in the same collection, “Dictionary of love of Venice”, by Philippe Sollers (Plon, 2014).

Corsica of small (and great) pleasures

We know: visiting a place with locals changes everything! This is kind of what the Small hedonistic atlas of Corsica. A discovery of the island as a privileged traveler, guided by three lovers of the place, Philippe Santini, Laura Benedetti and Thibaut Dini.

We first leaf through the book for its splendid photos, in soft and poetic light. Before leaving, region by region, discover good addresses, pretty stories and secret corners. Far from tourists, we are struck by the beauty of Lake Ospedale, a water landscape in the middle of the forest. Around Sartène, we embark on a terroir walk in three stages: at the Ferme de Roccapina to taste the Tomme Sartenaise, at the Domaine Saparale to taste one of the best wines of the region, then to Tizzano, on the west coast, to soak the wine. finger in honey by Georges Preziosi.

Also read, intelligent texts on the Corsican language or traditional pig breeding (and therefore delicious charcuterie). The last page closed, we dream of going there.

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