Liber primus, the first book, the grail! The treasure of a collection, the highlight of a library, it is priceless. It comes from the source. We pick it up delicately, caress it, whisper sweet nothings to it and often worship its author. It occupies our minds when a place overwhelms us with emotion.

The house. The missal and the church. It could be a Bible, the mother of printed books. But let's be honest, today these books are more coveted by art collectors than by the faithful. The parables have become short stories, the prayers poems. They have become examples of literary styles, collections of daily meditations.

The water of the Durance. A great inspiration for Provence. It takes us back to Giono, Pagnol, Frédéric Mistral and the Félibres. How many stories have been born from the reflections on the water, from the music of the lapping water mingling with the stories of the wind. Can you walk along the water's edge without evoking a book or an author of adventure, romance, fiction or inspiration?

Rivers, lakes and streams are also symbolic of gestation, baptism, childhood reverie and the twists and turns of adolescence. From the banks of the Seine in Arsène Lupin's adventures, to the Lady of the Lake and Lancelot, via the Golden Gate Bridge spanning the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers . From serenity to adventure, there's no shortage of references.

Today, between the manuscript and the reader, there is the publisher and the printer. But in ancient times, the reproduction of texts was entrusted to copyist monks. And here is an evocation of the books and desks that were housed in monasteries where calligraphy and illumination were developed.

A lake, a tower, an umbrella, a few wisps of mist, a half-tone sky....
A romantic atmosphere. Jules Vernes, Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe and others have associated
and many stories in which science fiction is involved.

A bell tower singing to the four winds, a Victoire by Antoine Sartorio, "the sculptor of bodies and souls", Chinese lanterns, a poppy, lighting.... A Prévert-like inventory from an open book, to take you down a literary memory lane?

Simply in the light of the East. Where do our thoughts take us?
A few notes to keep the memory of a dream, wandering thoughts that remind us of a story we want to reread, the search for the phrase that will guide our day!

Author, librarian, documentalist, archivist, researcher, collector, reader, many variations invade the mind at the sight of this figure surrounded by books... In all these definitions, passion is present. For writing, for mentors, for words, for stories, for books and for the people who make them...

The sky in perspective flows like a river, the streets arrange the houses like bookshelves. The city is a library of memories. But what might we find behind the walls? Feathers running across paper, pages turning, silent readers and others expressing themselves and miming images through words.

For those with a fertile imagination, the sun bounces off the stones of the city to shine on the iscles, and the song of the river is lost between the facades of the old town centre.
Only the rules of the creator are valid in the worlds of memories. Jules Verne was a master at this.

Light from the hills, a monument to the victory of 1918. A victory that left many black and blood-red memories in the minds of young men sent to the front in herds. Giono was one of them. Some still reproach him for things, but none of these paper judges went through the hell of the trenches like he did... And if you look closely, in every era, the light of the hills is also the light of the Resistance and the resilience that gave birth to books that are an outlet.

The vibrancy of Florence and Glasgow, bathed in Mediterranean sunshine... A mix of Tuscany and Scotland, where architecture, art and industry can be the links to a multitude of adventures and mysteries. Two cities where the pen of Conan Doyle and that dear Sherlock Holmes can be found.

From Lavender to Venice, Giono made the journey. From the lavender route to the silk route, from Marco Polo to Marcel Pagnol. On the one hand, the fires of Murano transform sand into glass; on the other, those of alembics turn flowers into essence. Both have inspired numerous authors, for romances and detective stories.

The night. We love it or we fear it. Every night is different. It can be a symbol of romance, reflection, adventure, werewolves, vampires or shooting stars. You can contemplate it alone, in a group or as a couple. Some authors can't write a story without at least one night. For others, night is only bedtime, nothing ever happens under the stars....

Mediterranean atmosphere. Coast or island? Europe, Africa, the Middle East, all cultures with their own differences and diversity. The cradle of philosophy and many a spy book or romance.

Atmosphere: if you listen carefully, it sounds like music. Is it a quill running across the paper or a typewriter transferring ink from ribbon to paper? Is the mist on the horizon due to the twilight hour or the Stromboli rumbling in the open sea? An atmosphere conducive to the imagination...

The mill, dear to the heart of Alphonse Daudet, but also of Miguel de Cervantes and his Don Quixote. The author grinds the grains of his imagination to make books, just as the miller grinds cereals to make flour. Both are masters of the source that irrigates their industry and ends up in everyone's hands.

So, adventure, espionage, romance, science fiction? The sky is Polynesian, the cabin is London, the fighter is universal. The car in the sky isn't flying, it's on another plane. The bridge is from Nantes, the shadow lives on an island, and the trainers are mine, suggesting that the author is present in his novel as a narrator, or even a character in his own right.

Who are you thinking of? As far as I'm concerned, it's Jules-Verne, Vincenot, Pagnol, Giono, Frégni and many others who write novels that are fragrant and full of that Provençal sound and that art of living in the sun and in the rain.

In those days, there were classes on Saturday mornings. So invariably, when I left secondary school, I'd go to the market where the second-hand bookseller was, to pick up 5 or 10 francs worth of comics and novels. Stories that developed over several issues or tomes, a real weekly treasure hunt.

In addition, I supplemented my parents' pocket money by helping with deliveries for the family business, and by sharing the tips. As an added bonus, I got to enjoy the stories that the customers were always telling, usually about their travels, holidays and so on. As a delivery driver, I was also a good listener. So I had endless sources to feed my already fertile imagination.

That's why I like to multiply the references to increase the sense of discovery and familiarity... As some authors do, you only need to read a few lines to fully identify with one of the characters.

London and the Côte d'Azur... The Promenade des Anglais. They developed the Côte d'Azur for their sea bathing and summer holidays. So it became a territory for authors of all nationalities and styles. Adventure, romance, burglary, espionage and the list could go on.

The defence in the round around a field of lavender, what possible perspectives between a long-distance romance, a holiday love, an adventure, a forgotten treasure. And the keyboard piece tells us about music, craftsmanship, creation, composition, interpretation... So many different angles to shape a beautiful story.

The light of autumn, a time of end-of-harvest romances, of picking in the woods, of orchards that give off the scent of apples - green, yellow, red, golden, multi-coloured, even. Where does this lead you? Giono, Pagnol, Frégni, Jules-Verne, Dumas Ségur, Sand, London and his call of the forest?