Philosopher, writer, successful author, professor at Sciences Po and at the Lycée de la Légion d'Honneur, Charles Pépin, who bears a royal first name twice, logically lives in the former district of Charles V, i.e. -say in the Marais.
Having traveled it up and down ("It's while walking that I think best"), the author of The Virtues of Failure and the comic strip Fifty Shades of Greeks knows his neighborhood like the back of his hand.
Normal: for a quarter of a century, he has lived at five different addresses there, which has given him plenty of time to build relationships with numerous traders and residents.
His latest work, The encounter, a philosophy (Allary éditions), is dedicated to the knowledge of others and, as its name suggests, to encounters, friendly or romantic, from Antiquity to the present day.
For him, the meeting is not a pleasure or an incidental alternative, but a necessity. “Meeting is essential to our existence because we are dependent on each other,” he says. This is why Le Marais Mood wanted to meet him. And this is also why Monsieur Pépin received us, in the company of his cat Hermès.
Text: Katia Barillot
Photo: ©Anaïs Costet
18.06.21
Update: 10.07.23
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