In fact, I think I get bored when I travel... at least when I'm not away on business! I don't know how to stand still and do nothing, it's not my habit. So I never travel as a tourist. If you don't understand anything about the country you're in, you need someone who can introduce you to it... I'm a journalist first and foremost.
I come back from my travels with sketches, which I then draw up as reports. When I go to a city I like, I also bring back a book of photos to find elements that I wasn't able to sketch at the time: a beautiful Tunisian door, for example, something that I would have sketched, but which will be more successful if I can see something similar in a book! Photography helps me.
From Cambodia, I brought back a report on the revealing story of a businessman who, when he was very young, had been a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, who were themselves just 15 years old... In Honduras, a French archaeologist specialising in the Mayan empire took me on a tour of the ruins, telling me about the body sacrifices of the Mayan kings... In Afghanistan, I visited the tomb of Commander Massoud... before entering the Panshir valley, where hundreds of temples have been destroyed by the Taliban. In Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos explained his vision of things to me. From these journeys, I draw what's different about them...
I love leaving my world behind, getting away from it to see other people... Wherever you go, in developing areas or in the United States, for me, travelling means changing, adapting to other ways of life. It means learning and learning again, and making memories... I wouldn't be quite the same if I hadn't travelled so much!
Even after many trips, I still pack too many things in my suitcase... My equipment: paper, pencils, coloured markers... in a brilliant kit for organising everything that was given to me at the Angoulême Festival in 2005. I also pack everything I need to go to the receptions and dinners I have to attend, so my suitcase is getting bigger. I add the little albums my daughter makes with photos of my granddaughter. I can take them with me wherever I go, so I can feel a bit at home.
Because I love being in France! I was born in Tunis and, as far as I was concerned, France was a paradise. I dreamt of coming here... and my dream came true! And the more I travel, the happier I am to live here, the more I can tell the difference between this country and the others... and it's always to France's advantage. Of course, there are certain things in every country that are better than here, but on the whole... I'm very patriotic!
*Merci Hannukah Harry", by Pierre-Philippe Barkats and Georges Wolinski, published by Casterman
Seven dates
1934: Born in Tunis.
1960: Draws for Hara-Kiri Hebdo, later Charlie Hebdo.
1968: In L'Enragé, he imagines a big reactionary and a little smoker, two key characters.
1970: Editor-in-chief of Hara-Kiri, contributes to L'Humanité and Paris-Match.
1982: Editor-in-chief of L'Echo des savannes.
2005: Grand Prix at the Angoulême Festival for Dialogues de sourd.
2007: Merci Hannukah Harry, with Pierre- Philippe Barkats, American business lawyer and friend.
