Daring French Explorations is an exceptional homage to adventure. Intrepid French mariners – including legendary explorers Lapérouse, Bougainville, and Dumont d'Urville, and unsung sailors La Barbinais, Pagès, and Roquefeuil – embark readers on sixteen voyages around the world from 1714 to 1854.
A selection of firsthand accounts culled from their maritime travelogues recounts the trials and tribulations the explorers encountered as they charted new routes to remote territories. Their unfiltered observations on wide-ranging themes – from geopolitics and commerce to climate change and global cultures – resonate with contemporary issues.
This handsome volume – featuring many previously unpublished illustrations, engravings, and maps – traces their extraordinary scientific, diplomatic, or commercial expeditions, which significantly marked the history of world exploration.
Driven by a spirit of adventure and a passion for expeditions, inveterate collector Hubert Sagnières has drawn from his extensive library to curate this unprecedented introduction to the glory days of French naval history.
Award-winning author Edward Duyker is a fellow at the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
"A collection of sixteen first-person travelogues, alongside intricate maps and etchings, all lovingly curated by Hubert Sagnières from his private collection. [...] This is the perfect book for armchair travellers, with vicarious adventures from start to finish."
– The Lady