The first woman to be elected to the Académie Française, Marguerite Yourcenar is less well known as a pioneer of ecology. More than a simple motif, the landscape is a veritable source of inspiration for the writer. The Flanders of her childhood served as a backdrop to her “Archives of the North”. Her love of Flemish painting and the landscapes painted by Brueghel and Bosch were at the very heart of her novel, “The Abyss”.
From Mount Desert Island in the United States where she lived for over 50 years, she never stopped working for the protection of nature and the living world.
