Odette du Puigaudeau and Marion Sénones, adventurers of the sands
Audio 48:30
Following in the footsteps of Odette and Marion is the assurance of a great journey, winding and fascinating.
© Catherine Faye & Marine Sanclemente
By: Céline Develay Mazurelle Follow
53 mins
“The Year of the Two Ladies”, a sensitive story by Marine Sanclemente and Catherine Faye in the footsteps of Odette du Puigaudeau and Marion Sénones, has just received the Jules Verne Grand Prix in France. The opportunity to set out again on the trail of these two unclassifiable adventurers, stubborn and still too little known.
Publicity
Today, in the 21st century, who still knows the extraordinary destinies of Odette du Puigaudeau and Marion Senones?
Who has heard of their multiple trips which will take them together, from the interwar period, through Mauritania and Western Sahara, on camels, among the desert and the nomads?
With Marine Sanclemente and Catherine Faye, authors of "The Year of the Two Ladies" and Monique Vérité, Odette's biographer, we draw a mosaic and contrasting portrait of this amorous duo, unpublished, of French explorers, both journalists, ethnologists, designers and writer for Odette. Because Odette du Puigaudeau, whose name is to this day the best known, eclipsing that of Marion, will write and publish, from 1936, several stories at the same time rich and demanding, giving an account of these trips among which "Barefoot through Mauritania: 1933-1934 ”or“ The salt of the desert ”on the mythical salt caravan which then linked twice a year, Timbuktu to Taoudeni.
On the caravan trails, in the vastnesses of the Sahara, Odette and Marion certainly sought to reinvent themselves, living in contact with the Moors and a whole nomadic civilization which fascinated and jostled them, at a time also when colonial ethnographic missions followed one another on background of science and quest for exoticism. Because our two Western pioneers will not escape their time and the colonial prejudices that forged this kind of trip.
One thing is certain: in their time, their passage marked the spirits in Mauritania, to the point that the year 1934 is designated there as the year of the two ladies, in reference to their first trip.
Behind them, they will also leave precious testimonies in texts, drawings or photos, which pay homage to the peoples of Western Sahara, to their greatness and their nobility.
This program, initially broadcast in September 2020, is part of the “Compagnons de route” collection, a series of sound portraits of writers-travelers from So far so close.
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Bibliography
:
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The year of the two ladies,
by Marine Sanclemente and Catherine Faye.
Paulsen Publishing.
2020
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Odette du Puigaudeau, a Breton in the desert,
from Monique Vérité.
Payot Rivages editions.
First published in 1991. Reissue in 2020
-
Barefoot across Mauritania.
1933-1934,
by Odette du Puigaudeau.
Libretto editions.
(First published in 1936)
-
Tagant: in the heart of the Moorish country.
1933-1938,
by Odette du Puigaudeau.
Libretto editions.
(First published in 1949)
-
The salt of the desert,
by Odette du Puigaudeau.
Libretto editions.
(First published in 1940).
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