Julien Perrot: The founder of La Salamandre publishes a book

ThoseLiterary outing –Julien Perrot, of “La Salamandre”, engages in a collection of news

In “A life for nature”, the founder of the naturalist review intimately links his own experiences, such as his visual handicap, to environmental themes.

Posted today at 12:00 p.m.

As the colleagues of Julien Perrotfounder of the review “La Salamandre”, suggested that he write a book, the naturalist rejoiced. He was going to be able to talk about dragonflies, larch or herons. “They replied:” No, it already exists. You have to tell your story, because that’s also what will touch people. ”

Even if it was not his initial intention, the Neuchâtel of adoption lent himself to the game. The one of speaking of oneself. For three months, cut off from his messaging and subject to an almost monacal pace, the fifties wrote 45 short stories. Poetics and positives, these testimonies address environmental issues and challenges seen through the prism of its own experiences.

Observe despite myopia

Whoever was editor -in -chief at only 11 years old has notably gave himself up to the heavy visual handicap with which he has always lived. “It’s quite paradoxical to have a bad view when my job is precisely to open people’s eyes,” he slips. We are all born with a share of vulnerability, we luggish a few pots … But, as far as possible, we can make a strength. That’s the resilience. “

As far as he is concerned, he is categorical that his strong myopia prompted him to further develop his other senses, but also to keep his child’s soul and a certain tendency to wonder. “I perceive each animal observation as a small victory,” he rejoices.

Over the course of chapters which can be read independently, Julien Perrot hopes, among other things, to give some tracks to the ecoanxious so as not to give up and “cultivate joy”. “It is particularly hard for the younger generations,” he notes. If I wrote this book, it is also to explain to them how I react to this feeling of helplessness. Cultivate the link with nature will help us to go through the tests we will face in the coming years. ”

Build on proximity

According to one of the main mottos That he has set himself since he founded his magazine, Julien Perrot goes “to look for people where they are”. “My goal has never been to simply transmit knowledge, but to touch the hearts of people with emotions, experience and authentic.”

A kind of storytelling proximity which was also the recipe for the success of “Salamander“Since 1983. His Youtube channel (130,000 subscribers) or The Salamandre festivalwhich welcomes up to 10,000 visitors each fall, are other fairly telling examples.

“Imagine that you are talking about birds to someone who is not interested at all, it will pass him over his head. But if you explain to him that, in his cherry tree, there is sometimes an extraordinary bird, black and yellow, which comes to eat, a bird that spent the winter in Congo before migrating … Suddenly, it becomes an incredible thing! I believe it is important to tell people a story that relates to their close environment. ”

“Title and big glasses”

When the parents of young Julien Perrot detect his visual handicap, we are not yet talking about an inclusive school. “It is envisaged to educate myself in an establishment for visually impaired and blind, until an ophthalmologist encourages my parents to send me like everyone in the village class.” Forced to surpass himself throughout his schooling to decipher the blackboard, the enthusiast of nature transforms his frustrations into force. “If I had been a chickadee, I would not have survived long,” notes the author.

“Humans and ants”

Châtelet metro station, in Paris. The doors of the train open and pour their human flow. Julien Perrot sees the faces of men and women. “Most like a little disconnected from their own lives, their eyes lowered on their screens.” He then compares the crowd to the colonies of ants moving in their underground galleries, denouncing the imbalance between the “astounding” environmental impact of humans and that, infinitely, of the menus insects. “All these engulfed resources, it makes me dizzy.”

“The Tervin, the Ortolan and the Criminals”

Zermatt, June 2008. Julien Perrot, accompanied by a naturalist painter, is preparing a file on the Matterhorn. One morning, the two men hear a melancholic song. That of a lonely bird, perched on a larch. “The singer ortolan tirelessly repeats the same stanza, bombing the chest to look good.” However, this pretty concert has something tragic. Because this specimen is probably “the last individual of his species in the valley”. This observation confronts the moved duo with the decline of biodiversity.

Marine Dupasquier is a journalist at the Vaud & Regions section since 2020 and has been evolving between the editors of Nyon and Morges. Sensitive to local themes, she made her first rods in the Journal de Morges.More info

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments