Gabriel Gachen

I was born in Toulouse on February 16, 1952, and grew up in Villemur-sur-Tarn, a small town in the Haute-Garonne department.

After attending school in Villemur and then Gaillac, I studied engineering in Toulouse. My first professional career was spent in large companies, in the fields of district heating, industrial refrigeration, and water treatment.

In 1989, following a major disagreement with my employer, I decided to change course. Since adolescence, a craft had fascinated me: saddlery. One of my neighbors in Villemur was a saddler, and I watched his work with admiration. I learned the trade on the job, then set up my own saddlery and harness-making business.

A rider myself, the world of horses captivated me and has never let me go. I pursued this passion until 2015, the year I retired. During those years, I had the honor of being awarded the prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman of France) title three times: in antique saddlery, in single-horse driving, and in three-horse driving.

Writing, however, began much earlier. Even as a teenager, I wrote poems and long epics, two of which were later published: Bouan Patarin and La rose de Babylone (The Rose of Babylon). In high school, I wrote a serial in the school newspaper, Indianapolis, the story of a young boy dreaming of one day racing on the legendary American circuit. The desire to tell stories was already there.

After a divorce in 2008, I traveled to several countries in Africa and Latin America, including Colombia. These distant lands, their faces and their silences, gradually nourished my stories.

In 2013, another encounter would change my life forever. On a website, I met the woman who would become my wife. I went to Madagascar to meet her. It was love at first sight—for her, and for this unique land that would also leave its mark on my writing.

Today, I live in the Brionnais region, in a small village near Charolles. I write mostly early in the morning, when the world is still asleep and the night has left words and images on my desk.

Above all, I define myself as a storyteller. Even as a teenager, in the schoolyard, I would tell the adventures of a superhero to classmates sitting around me. I loved it. Nothing has really changed.

What I want to share is this curiosity for what I don't yet know: countries, people, destinies. Stories of life, death, and passion. Human stories.