French Southern Territories Proverbs (13)

Il n'est pas douteux qu'on trouvera des mines de toutes espèces, au moins du cuivre, du fer et du plomb… la France australe procurera des bois de construction et des mâtures, des goudrons, des chanvres…

“There is no doubt that mines of every kind will be found there, at least copper, iron, and lead… Southern France will supply timber for construction and masts, tar, and hemp.”

Kerguelen's optimistic 1772 report to King Louis XV, describing the newly sighted southern land as rich in resources — a claim later exposed as wild exaggeration once the barren, wind-scoured islands were properly explored.

J'envoyai aussitôt un de nos matelots déployer un drapeau sur ces terres qu'aucune créature humaine n'avait ni vues ni foulées avant nous.

“I immediately sent one of our sailors to unfurl a flag on these lands which no human being had ever seen or set foot upon before us.”

Dumont d'Urville's own account of claiming Adélie Land for France on 21 January 1840 — the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic mainland by a French expedition.

Reconnaissance éternelle à celle qui, trois fois, m'a permis de faire le tour du monde, en assumant sur elle-même nos charges de famille et le poids de la séparation.

“Eternal gratitude to she who, three times, allowed me to sail around the world, taking upon herself our family duties and the weight of our separation.”

The tribute Dumont d'Urville gave his crew when naming the newly discovered Antarctic coast "Terre Adélie" after his wife Adèle, who endured three long expeditions apart from him.

Pourquoi pas ?

“Why not?”

As a boy, Charcot answered every doubter of his ambition to become a sailor and polar explorer with this reply — he later named all four of his expedition ships Pourquoi-Pas?, including the one that carried French science into the southern and Antarctic seas.

Vent du nord dans la matinée, entraînant avec lui brume et pluie fine, toujours la fameuse boucaille.

“North wind in the morning, bringing with it mist and fine rain — always the notorious boucaille.”

A logbook entry from Charcot's first French Antarctic expedition, capturing the harsh, unpredictable weather ("boucaille" — a sailors' term for thick fog and drizzle) that defines the southern seas around territories such as Kerguelen and Crozet.

Le bruit d'échappement de vapeur ou de formidable scie circulaire que fait quelque baleinoptère ou quelque mégaptère en venant respirer à la surface de l'eau.

“The sound of escaping steam, or of some great circular saw, made by a whale or a humpback as it comes up to breathe at the surface of the water.”

Charcot's field description of whales surfacing near his ship, part of the scientific observations gathered during France's early Antarctic and sub-Antarctic expeditions.

La seule chose qu'on est sûr de ne pas réussir est celle qu'on ne tente pas.

“The only thing you are sure not to achieve is the one you never attempt.”

Victor's lifelong motto as founder of the French Polar Expeditions, the organization that built and ran France's scientific bases across the sub-Antarctic islands and Adélie Land.

Vivre, c'est se réveiller la nuit dans l'impatience du jour à venir, c'est s'émerveiller de ce que le miracle quotidien se reproduise pour nous une fois encore, c'est avoir des insomnies de joie.

“To live is to wake in the night eager for the day to come, to marvel that the daily miracle happens again for us, to have insomnia from sheer joy.”

Victor's reflection on the wonder of daily life, drawn from decades spent leading scientific missions to the remote southern and polar territories he devoted his career to studying.

Les vieux aventuriers ne meurent pas, ils disparaissent, ils s'évanouissent.

“Old adventurers do not die — they disappear, they fade away.”

A wry reflection on how explorers of Victor's generation quietly vanished from the polar and sub-Antarctic frontiers rather than formally retiring from them.

Ce n'est pas ce que nous sommes qui nous empêche de réaliser nos rêves ; c'est ce que nous croyons que nous ne sommes pas.

“It is not what we are that stops us from realizing our dreams; it is what we believe we are not.”

Victor's belief, formed through a career pushing scientific expeditions into some of Earth's most remote and inhospitable territories, that self-doubt is the true limit on ambition.

Il y a une chose dont je suis absolument certain, c'est que si on se prend au sérieux, on ne peut pas faire de travail sérieux.

“There is one thing I am absolutely certain of: if you take yourself seriously, you cannot do serious work.”

Victor's reflection on humility in science and leadership, drawn from decades directing the French Polar Expeditions organization that founded the research stations across the sub-Antarctic territories.

À dix heures du matin, nous distinguâmes distinctement la terre, s'étendant de l'est à l'ouest à perte de vue, formée de hautes montagnes couvertes de neige.

“At ten o'clock in the morning, we distinctly made out the land, stretching from east to west as far as the eye could see, formed of high mountains covered in snow.”

Dumont d'Urville's journal entry of 22 January 1840, the morning after his expedition's landing, describing the newly sighted Antarctic coastline that would become Terre Adélie.

“I could have very properly called the island Desolation Island, to signalise its sterility; but in order not to deprive Monsieur de Kerguelen of the glory of having discovered it, I have called it Kerguelen's Land.”

Cook's log entry from his third voyage, recorded when he sighted and briefly landed on the Kerguelen archipelago in December 1776 — his decision to honor the earlier French discovery fixed the territory's enduring name.