Following in my uncle's footsteps, explorer in the Greenland

The next 20t" of October, Benoît Izabelle will lead a conference in Manneville-la-Goupil, the village of origin of his uncle, Bernard Izabelle, who was an explorer in the Greenland in 1950 beside Paul-Emile Victor. This conference is the result of a 15-years-long research process.

"When 1 was a child, I have always heard the extraordinary and fantastic adventures of Bernard Izabelle, my uncle and explorer". It is the story of a man looking for family legends. Some fantasias taking the shape of polar explorations and other icy adventures. Benoît Izabelle is the nephew of Bernard Izabelle, an explorer from Manneville-la-Goupil who left in 1950 to spend the winter in the Greenland with the French Polar Expeditions of Paul-Emile Victor (see here opposite). "We had no news from this famous uncle, who established in the southern hemisphere in 1970, alter his mother's death". Hungry to discover the life of this family haro, Benoît Izabelle decided to lead his own investigation. "First, I try to find out his postal address in Australia (that was quite easy thanks to the embassy) and 1 then start a correspondence". The letters stay without any answers. It will take one year for the uncle to send a first latter "in approximate French, riddled with English words".

A travel journal as a treasure

At the same time, Benoît Izabelle solicits the people who participated directly or indirectly to the French Polar Expeditions and gets in touch with the French Institute for Polar Research and Technology. "I was looking for stories, photos, press articles, recordings who could enable us to follow step-by-step my uncle's adventures". An avent happened in 1998. This avent changed the researches lad by the nephew. "I was finally having a regular correspondence with my uncle, who definitely settled in Melbourne, when he decided to send me his travel journal in which he wrote every single day during his campaign in the Greenland, from April 1950 to October 1951 ".

This travel journal is a real treasure for Benoît Izabelle. He bustled about transcribing it and writing it down. "While I was transcribing this document, 1 rediscovered my uncle's history. These were fabulous moments that I will never forget".

Memory work

Benoît Izabelle will honour this travel journal in the village of origin of his uncle. Last year, the nephew from Lyon has been solicited by the city council of Manneville-laGoupil and by the first town councillor Joël Salaün to recount the story of Bernard Izabelle in a conference and an exhibition which will be held on October the 20tn "Both avents are aimed to handie a memory work in order to explain to the pupils of the elementary school of Manneville-la-Goupil, that a young boy studied in the same school a long time ago and Chat he made a huge work for the scientific progress in the 20t" century. With the conférence, the aim is also to give this littie village from the Pays de Caux and its inhabitants the pride and the glory to have among their ancients a polar explorer, a man out of the ordinary. No plate, no place or street named alter him, just the gratitude for the work and the sacrifice of ail these men of the post-war-years".

Martin DOUET

Bernard Izabelle, a French meteorologist spends the winter in the Greenland with the French Polar Expeditions, a conference held on Saturday, October the 20t" at 8:30 pm in the community hall in Manneville-la-Goupil (exhibition of all collected documents at 7:00 pm).

"From virtual to reality"

The research made by Benoît Izabelle will not be futile. In addition to the conference, a book should be published later on. Over the different encounters, the nephew from Lyon tied a relationship with the explorer Nicolas Dubreuil, who wrote the book "Aventurier des glaces" edited by the Martinière. Interested in the story of Benoît Izabelle, he broke the news about the following project: leaving in July 2013 to follow the explorer uncle's and the French Polar Expeditions of Paul-Emile Victor's footsteps. Benoît Izabelle said: "This would enable us to be deeply immersed in the everyday of a polar expedition and thus to go from virtual to reality".

Story of a wintering

The conference will mostly be supported by the stories written in Bernard Izabelle's travel journal. This document is a gold mine and tells about the everyday life of the explorers in the Greenland. The quest of adventures and discoveries of the boy of Manneville was comforted by this mission.

"He was an opportunist, as many boys who, in the post-war-years, were always on the moue and decided to go for it". The words of the nephew concerning his uncle absolutely describe Bernard Izabelle. Living in Manneville-la-Goupil, a little village in the Pays de Caux [North France, Normandy], the man has always been attracted by novelties. Both the weather science and aviation are passions for him. He logically decided to join the national meteorology institute and landed up at the "Madrillet" aerodrome, in the suburbs of the City of Rouen. Bernard Izabelle reveals a "colossal cheek" and succeeds to join the French Polar Expeditions created by Paul-Emile Victor in 1947.

A tough campaign

On April, 13rd 1950, he goes aboard the Hillevaag in the direction of the Greenland for a wintering mission. "The expedition to the Greenland in the 50's is mostly aimed to deepen the scientific observations started in the previous years and evacuate the wintering group from the Central Station 1949-1950 in order to replace them with a new group, among which Bernard Izabelle is", explains Benoît Izabelle. On his blog, Benoît Izabelle focuses on his uncle's travel journal, recounting the totality of a mission regulated by the ethnological discoveries and the providing with food made by air under freezing temperatures. In the station, the life is hard. The young boy from the Pays de Caux, with a thick beard, will nevertheless celebrate his 22t" birthday with his companions.

Always being on the moue

Bernard Izabelle will come back in France more than one year alter he left. On October, 13t" 1951, he is welcomed in triumph in the harbour of Rouen. But the way back to Manneville-la-Goupil is bitter. Bernard Izabelle just lost his father. If he is happy to get back in his family, the young man has got itchy feet. He starts to feel the desire to leave again for other unknown destinations. In his travel journal, he wrote: "I am so tired, so lost. But from where do I come from." He recovers physically and psychologically from his journey. But from July 1952, he goes to Australia with a letter of recommendation written by Paul-Emile Victor. "From this moment, he will never come back in France", said Benoît Izabelle.

The explorer took part in two campaigns for the ANARE (Australian Polar Organism): Heard Island in 1953 and Mawson station in 1957. Settled in the southern hemisphere, he started a family, then settled in Australian Papua New Guinea and disappeared - until a member of his family takes an interest in his life as adventurer...

MB

Legend photos:

1 - Benoît Izabelle spent almost 15 years in looking for his explorer uncle

2 - The boy from Manneville avent to the Greenland when he was 21 years old, looking for adventures

3 - The omnipresent ice was making the transport conditions hard

Revue de presse

Partager cet article