Some 3 million French citizens live abroad, scattered across the globe. From the snowy uplands of Quebec to a remote, desert island in Guinea-Bissau or the depths of the Ivorian forests, our France 2 colleagues went to meet some of their French compatriots who have started whole new lives. Thousands of kilometres from French shores, they are living out childhood dreams of closeness to nature and joining new communities and cultures.
Stéphane Denis was an entrepreneur, with a life of suits, meetings and sales. But he never forgot his childhood dream to move to Canada one day. At 33, he sold up in France and relocated to the mountains of Quebec – an inhospitable region, where temperatures can drop to -48°C, but one where he had a mission: the conservation of the endangered wood bison. He inherited this passion from his father, and has passed it on to his daughter, who made the move with him at the age of 10. After more than 20 years, Val-des-Lacs is his home. Stéphane has forged his place in the community, running a bison reserve and an outdoor activities centre. He also slips seamlessly in and out of the local québécois dialect.
Laurent Duris had a different fantasy: a desert island in a turquoise sea. In 2000, the former soldier took out a 99-year lease on the island of Kéré, off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. His wife and four-year-old daughter bring the permanent population up to three. Over the years, Laurent has gone from sleeping in a tent to building his family home and a number of other houses that make up the holiday resort he and his wife now run. Apart from fruit and fish, though, life on the island is far from self-sufficient. Necessities as basic as water have to be delivered at great expense, and the family's way of life is only viable thanks to international tourism.
Finally, in the Ivorian forest, Estelle Raballand describes her lifestyle as more of a duty than a fantasy – a duty to the endangered chimpanzee population of West Africa. Three decades ago, she signed up to volunteer at a monkey sanctuary in Guinea, and has practically never left Africa since, going on to found her own conservation facilities in Guinea and then Ivory Coast through her NGO, Akatia. She has chosen to live without many of the comforts of modern life, such as running water, phone signal and electricity, preferring to invest donations in the chimpanzees and their future instead.
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