Paul

I was born in Lyon, from a Savoyard mother and an Ardéchois father. I discovered in the slopes, the school benches and the knowledge of the life outside the walls of the successive schools I frequented.

Then, Saône docks followed. And in one of these venerable institutions, where a big number of dunces were graduated, I started studying latin. But in order to “fluctuat nec mergitur”, I decided to leave it and start enjoying another culture, the National Union of Mountain Centres (that became the UCPA).

There, as a “volunteer instructor”, I discovered in successive seasons the Guisane and its mountains, supervised by great professionals, Oisans guides, attentive to all important things of its valley and culture.

At that time, Gaston Rebuffat passed by there. Armed with a long pole, commenting on the silent film images projected in some obscure church halls, he brought with him images of the world responsible for odours and a host of flavours that only childhood memories know how to render it.

Aspiring guide in autumn of 1967, I was integrated and assigned to the Military Mountain School of Chamonix in the next spring, while “May ‘68” raging, I had done my time as an instructor.

From the other side, my permanent disputes and mountain escapades allowed me to discover myself, in addition to the friendship of some great personalities of the Alps, jails in 27th BCA and six weeks of “overflow” which intensified my opinion…

In 1970, in possession of my guide certificate, I failed the Haute Tarentaise, and I came to the Arcs where I have practiced my profession for over 35 years.