She answers the questions of La Gazette du Var.

Have reading and writing always been part of your life?

Effectivement, depuis mon enfance, je lis énormément. J’ai grandi avec la série littéraire “Harry Potter “. Je me souviens de la sortie du tome 5, je devais avoir 8 ou 9 ans. La fin est terrible. J’avais, à l’époque, couru dans la chambre de mon frère pour lui confier qu’il me fallait absolument le tome 6... La sortie étant prévue deux ans plus tard... Je ne savais pas comment j’allais pouvoir attendre. La réponse de mon frère fut que si je voulais la suite, je devais l’écrire.

Starting with your summers spent in Cavalaire?

My brother had challenged me. So during my summer holidays in Cavalaire, I dedicated myself to writing my 'Harry Potter 6'. My brother encouraged me enormously and I have never stopped writing since.

Was this love for Cavalaire born very early?

My cousins' grandparents built a house in Cavalaire in the 70s. The Parc hill was very sparsely populated at the time. So I spent all my summers, since childhood, in that house. Every step of the journey to the South was magical. It was the time of the year I looked forward to the most. I loved the 7-hour car ride, sometimes without air conditioning. I loved watching the landscape change and observing, little by little, the vegetation and buildings of the South appear...

For you, is it a preserved natural environment?

Cavalaire is nestled in an exceptional natural environment. The Conservatoire du Littoral has preserved many places, the Maures hill, Cap Lardier. What I love is swimming in the sea, being able to turn around to admire the bay of Cavalaire with the Maures massif opposite. Every time, I have this feeling of being cut off from the world, of being in a cocoon.

Did you miss Cavalaire?

When I was a child, I felt at home in Cavalaire. Sadness would overwhelm me at the end of the summer holidays when

And, this desire for the South?

In Paris, the job of editor made me happy, but as the years went by, I became more and more aware that I had never wanted to live in Paris, I had never wanted that life. I felt like I was missing out on my life. At one point, I made the decision to move to Cavalaire to try to make a living from my writing.

Discovering the history of Cavalaire!

I arrived in Cavalaire in January 2023. I thought I knew this place, but I discovered other fascinating facets of the town. I was renting the ground floor of a villa located in the hills, the historic of Cavalaire, I was driven to learn about the history, about the landing, about the role of Var in the Second World War and also about the cultural side.

Did a trip to Saint-Tropez inspire you?

I used to go to Saint-Tropez on Sundays. During a visit to the cinema museum, I fell in admiration before this huge photograph of Brigitte Bardot walking down the steps, she looks at us as if she were coming to meet us. Faced with this seemingly so free woman, I felt the opposite. I had been able to achieve my dream of moving to Cavalaire and starting my web writing business, I was writing articles. But I was in a period of intense doubt, I had that I entered this world of cinema. Afterwards, I was able to discover Romy Schneider. The character in my novel is called Romy because this actress truly fascinated me. Cavalaire in winter brought me so much, gave me back my self-confidence. I was able to find this impulse of life again, which allowed me to move to Tokyo in October 2023 for a year. So it was in Tokyo that I wrote this story, because I missed Cavalaire and I wanted to immerse myself in it again.

Why this departure for Japan?

Japan has been a great passion for a long time. Even though I was writing articles about Saint-Tropez, about Cavalaire, I was also writing articles about Japan, it is a very deep-rooted passion. I was able to get a one-year visa to move there. So I can write my articles directly on site. I then gained confidence. I am currently writing my second novel, which takes place in Japan.

Tell us a bit about the book?

All the characters are made up, it is a fiction mixed with a very precise historical and cultural context. I wanted to write a mirror narrative, where on one side there is the descent into hell of this actor in Saint-Tropez in the 50s and 60s and, conversely, his daughter in the present who is trying to embark on a path of healing. My reading and viewing about Brigitte Bardot nourished my writing. Every time I write a novel, I need my main character to start from the absolute bottom and then learn to know themselves, heal, and fulfill their desires. At the start, my characters have many secrets. It is the time I spend with them that reveals them to me. I built this family in which trauma is passed down from generation to generation. Romy, my character, is going to break this circle of misfortune.

When are you returning to Cavalaire?

I am moving back there in October. I decided to integrate more and build real social connections.

'Après la noyade' is a self-published book. The book is entered in a competition on Amazon les Plumes Francophones.