"In Loone's barn I found photos of his childhood, of him as a small boy playing in the river with his brother. After his baccalauréat he longed for travel, for somewhere else. He left for Latin America, for Peru, where he met his wife, with whom he came back to France. Wishing for a better life, he settled in the Couserans forty years ago. His story, like those of everyone I met, reveals that this territory is a corner of France built from journeys: the crusades of the Middle Ages, the crossings to Spain, the Spaniards who came to France, those who came to settle in search of freedom, those who were born here and grew up in their valleys. We arrived from Chile, a country at the edge of the world. When you reach Chile it is a terminus: you must stay or go back the other way. As in the Couserans, going up the valleys the roads are dead ends; facing the mountains, you must stay or turn back. I grew up in France after my parents' exile, so my intimate territory is nourished by two cultures, the French and the Chilean." RGR