Writings

Flow in the home cannot be taken in at a glance: we look at a place the way we look at a photograph, head-on, motionless, from the doorway. But nobody lives in a photograph. We live in movement: the same paths, repeated so often that we have stopped seeing them. What the floor eventually tells […]

There is a very simple way to look at a place: you walk in, you observe, you judge. It is beautiful, well made, harmonious… on the surface. And yet something may not be quite right. Not necessarily visible, nor explainable. But present. A silent dialogue A place is never limited to what it shows. It […]

We live in a world that dreads solitude and readily confuses it with abandonment. Yet there is a solitude one chooses: not to flee others, but to find oneself again. It must simply be distinguished from the solitude one endures. Two solitudes There is a solitude that weighs and a solitude that frees. The first […]

Before the furniture, before the objects, before anyone even lives there, a house already has a voice. You need only step into a bare room to hear it: the silence of a place says a great deal about what it is. There is a particular moment in the life of a house: the one when […]

We cross dozens of doors each day without paying attention. Yet every threshold marks a passage: from one space to another, from one state to another, sometimes from oneself to oneself. This most ordinary gesture deserves a pause. The threshold is one of the oldest elements of human architecture. Long before comfort or ornament, people […]

The Need to Justify Ourselves We spend an inordinate part of our lives proving that we are worth something.And most of the time, we don’t even see it. We lay out our résumé as though pleading a case. We curate what we show of ourselves so that others will find us interesting, useful, adequate. In […]

Lucidity is not wisdom, but the door We often confuse the two.To see clearly would be to be wise. Yet, on closer inspection, these are two distinct moments, and one is not enough for the other.Lucidity opens the eyes; wisdom, for its part, learns what to do with what they see. Seeing, without telling ourselves […]

At the end of the manuscript I have finished writing a book.After months spent returning to the same pages, doubting, starting again, the manuscript is finally there, completed. I wanted to say a word about it here, simply, without making too much of it. A long-haul endeavour Writing a book is nothing like a sudden […]

Towards a structured reading of Feng Shui What we believe we are arranging… transforms us We think we are organising a space.We think we are choosing objects, colours, materials. But in reality, each choice acts upon us in return. A space is never neutral.It influences, it modifies, it amplifies. It supports certain states… and inhibits […]

At the roots of the Costechareyre family, in the Ardèche The Costechareyre family, rooted in the Ardèche, carries within it a living memory made of hardship, faith and transmission. There are photographs that are not mere images. They are thresholds.Passages.Living memories. This one is among them. In this photograph, part of my family is gathered.My […]

We often believe that our emotional states come solely from ourselves: from our personal history, our thoughts, or the events we are going through. And yet another dimension sometimes intervenes silently: that of the spaces in which we live. For a home is not simply a collection of walls and materials. An inhabited space is […]

It came, this time of silence. Not the silence of withdrawal,but that of intensity. The silence in which words recede because the experience becomes vaster than language can contain.The silence in which each day becomes a space of work, in which one no longer speaks of what one is doing, because one is entirely absorbed […]

Trusting one’s instinct without abandoning reason Intuition and reason are often set against each other, as though one had to choose between them.I believe rather that they work better together. Listening to one’s instinct does not dispense one from thinking. And thinking does not oblige one to ignore what one feels. Felt sense: one piece […]

Since childhood, I have often heard this phrase:“You must make the most of life.” But when one asks someone what that truly means, the answers are almost always similar. Spending time with loved ones.Travelling.Living one’s passions.Succeeding personally or professionally. Experiences that can make a life rich and pleasant. As though happiness consisted in accumulating happy […]

Since time immemorial, the human being has asked this fundamental question: why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do we go through trials that are sometimes so difficult, sometimes even unjust? And above all, is it genuinely possible to free oneself from them? These questions have accompanied humanity for millennia. Philosophers, sages […]

In the language of love, certain expressions recur frequently: “my love”, “my heart”, “my better half” or even “my life”. These words are often used to express the depth of an attachment and the importance a person holds in one’s existence. And yet some of these formulas sometimes deserve to be questioned. Behind their apparent […]

Certain periods in life confront us with particularly deep trials. The end of a relationship or the loss of a loved one are among those moments when everything seems to waver. When a relationship ends or when someone we loved disappears, the sense of emptiness can be immense. It can give the impression that everything […]

Over recent decades, certain multinational companies have acquired a considerable influence over the global economy and the daily lives of billions of people. The major technology, pharmaceutical, energy and financial companies now shape essential aspects of our civilisation: access to information, market organisation, the management of natural resources and certain political orientations. This concentration of […]

In our modern world, almost everything pushes us to act.Work, organise, produce, understand, progress… Life often seems to be a succession of actions, objectives and efforts. Even in the inner domain, we sometimes tend to want to “do”: meditate, practise, read, seek methods, accumulate knowledge. All of this can be useful, of course. But there […]

When we think of our home, we often think of a place of rest, protection or comfort. We speak of walls, a roof, space, decoration or arrangement. But is a home only that? Since time immemorial, human beings have sensed that habitat is far more than a material construction. It is a space in which […]

What our objects tell us about ourselves We live surrounded by objects we hardly look at any more.And yet, if one pauses with them, many have a story. Not a mysterious story, but ours: that of the moments in which they entered our lives. Memories, not powers I do not believe that an object possesses […]

Slowing down is not giving up We often confuse slowness with laziness, and speed with efficiency.And yet going fast does not always mean moving forward. I sometimes slow down not because I am dropping my guard, but because I want to see more clearly where I am going. Speed as habit We get into the […]

Walking to think When an idea does not come, or when a decision weighs on me, I have taken to going out for a walk.Often, what remained blocked while seated unravels along the way. I am obviously not the first to notice this. Many people, before me, have thought while walking. The body advancing, the […]

Attention: the resource we squander We rarely lack time as much as we believe.We lack above all available attention. An entire day can pass without a single moment having been fully lived. A limited resource Attention is not infinite. It tires, it disperses, it allows itself to be captured. And many things, today, are designed […]

Decluttering, or recovering space within There are days when one can no longer bear the disorder.And others when one accumulates without even noticing. The relationship we maintain with our objects often says a great deal about the state we are in. Tidying is not decluttering Tidying is moving things.Decluttering is deciding. One can have a […]

Light: the primary material of a space We readily speak of walls, furniture, colours.We often overlook what I believe matters most: light. Before it is a setting, a space is first a particular way of receiving daylight. A material one cannot touch Light cannot be purchased or positioned like an object.But it draws volumes, carves […]

Inhabiting, not merely occupying We change apartments, move furniture, hang pictures.And yet it can happen that we live somewhere without truly being there. Occupying a space and inhabiting it are not the same thing. Occupying is to be there without being present One can move through one’s days in a flat the way one moves […]