Book launch: For Glory, Not Gold: Expeditions through Arctic Lands, 1818-1876, by Hubert Sagnières, foreword by Paul Nicklen, Arctic exploration advisers Mike Beedell and Eric Brossier. At the Explorers Club in New York City on October 17th at 6pm.
Book launch: Là où le temps et la glace sont les seuls maîtres : Expéditions à travers les terres arctiques, 1818-1876, by Hubert Sagnières, foreword Jean-Louis-Etienne, Arctic exploration advisers Mike Beedell and Eric Brossier. At the Canadian cultural center in Paris (75008), on October 7th from 8pm to 9:30pm.
Screening of the film Climate Observers, followed by a discussion between France and Eric and the audience at the Thénac Literary and Arts Festival, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (free admission).
A training day led by Eric Brossier, organized at the request of the TAAF (French Southern and Antarctic Lands) and the IPEV (French Polar Institute) for personnel working on sea ice in the vicinity of the Dumont d'Urville station: safety on sea ice during scientific work or light logistical operations.
Science coordinator aboard the icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot from Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen) to Nome (Alaska), via the geographic and magnetic North Poles, from September 5 to 25, 2025.
Taking part in the first day of the Summer University - Sea and Education 2025 - Arctic worlds: so far away, yet so close?. Round table discussion: “Myths, constraints, and challenges: how to adapt to the North Pole?”, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the IUEM in Plouzané (29).
Vagabond had not been back in French waters since May 2011... After a rough crossing from Greenland with her family crew, she is now moored at Le Faou, at the far end of Brest harbor (her home port).
Screening of the film Climate research in the Arctic, a family in the service of science at the community center in Narsaq (Greenland) at 7 p.m.
Early in the season this year, we welcome Laurent Geoffroy for the third and last year of his research in Gardar. Will the giant dykes from this region reveal their secrets?
We're still working on a time scale... immeasurable. This question recurs every day of his short stay. Breakfasts are punctuated with diagrams showing the birth of the universe 14,000 million years ago, the birth of the solar system 4,500 million years ago, the emergence of the rocks we're sitting on here in the Gardar region 1,500 million years ago... and the appearance of Man very recently, just 0.3 million years ago. Vertiginous. Just enough to put in perspective our presence on earth as thinking homo sapiens, the unique living being capable of questioning past and future.
To go back in time, you have to take a step back. This year, Laurent chartered an helicopter for one day to observe different sites from above, but also to land on massifs close to glaciers inaccessible by boat. He could discover new dykes, these magnificent veins of magma, note their positions and their orientations and thus add pieces to the enigma of tectonics in this part of the world.
On a smaller scale, we were less fortunate: a two-days storm kept Vagabond at the dock, giving to Laurent the opportunity to survey the glacial valley north of Narsarsuaq and to make some nice findings. But a freezing rain during his week in Greenland didn't help his fieldwork. Nonetheless, we continued to survey some observation sites with Laurent, notebook and compass in hand.
On board, always ready to question in depth and immortalize with his lens, Pierre Petit, film director, is building a documentary on this research; it's another challenge to show what is easier to explain in words than in pictures! His camera doesn't go back in time... As an off track mountaineer, he adapts to the situation, patiently sketching, tracking and capturing light when it seems to speak to him.
The Vagabond model is on display at the Paul-Emile Victor Polar Worlds Center in Prémanon (Jura, France), which is hosting the exhibition Polar Passions: When Dreams Lead to the Poles until September 30, 2026. Read the article in Le Monde and the one in Voix du Jura.
