Sensitive surfaces
Belonging. Being intimately persuaded of belonging to a place. Feeling that this place inhabits you more than you inhabit it.
Belonging is not my story. My story is being the daughter of Italian immigrants to the United States and then becoming an immigrant myself to Paris. Rather than a feeling of belonging, my story is feeling a “foreigner”, already as a little girl, and later, uprooting myself voluntarily (then again, my roots were not so deep…).
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![I would have wanted to discover Bonifacio from the sea, like Ulysses, penetrating into its natural straits and gliding past its fabulous chalk-white cliffs. Alas, the ferry bringing us back to Corsica only went as far as Bastia. In returning to Bonifacio, the two worlds from which I issued became apparent to me: granddaughter, on my Father’s side, of a large fishing family, and on my Mother’s side, of a family of investors.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01-36-SU-01.jpg)
![My parents’ “home”, which I’d name “Solea” once it became my turn to live there, evokes for me the beginning of papa’s serenity, and Mama’s as well. I can still see my parents in their home, close to 6 p.m., tired out by a hard day’s work, drinking tea, eating peanuts, chatting together, quietly happy.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/02-Soléa6-1.jpg)
![My Father, ever the untiring builder, undertook constructing a cliff-hanging, spacious home, the work of a lifetime, an affirmation of life, a combat against nature and the elements. Le Ponant would be erected at the far-end of an isolated and practically inaccessible plot of land.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/03-Le-Ponant-Ile-du-Levant.jpg)
![Le Ponant would truly be papa’s “master work”. Every day Papa worked resolutely, with single-minded determination and a singular notion of liberty. For instance, he refused to mix a large quantity of cement in order not to have to be obliged to finish it. Surprising thing, in my eyes.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/04-Ponant-mobile-PS.jpg)
![The life I’ve led has continuously left its mark on the Ile du Levant, as the island has left its mark on me. I found it intolerable to have a hotel above the sea but with no way for boats to disembark my clients. Thus was born the idea of a pontoon-like short quay. Extremely pretentious of me for compared to an unchained sea, man’s creations are of little consequence… Mistral windstorms and voilà, the first two quays dispersed in the Mediterranean or sunk after only one week. Third year, third quay… which has resisted the sea’s repeated onslaughts for four years now. Tenacious, stubborn, I admit to feeling more than a little pride.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/05-SU-25.jpg)
![Participating in the island’s evolution has always procured for me an intense feeling of belonging. Cutting into its stones, its trees, its earth fostered in me a clear sense of having roots.
A 400- meter path through the thick brush of the Domaine des Arbusiers was the first thing accomplished by the A.C.S.I.L., an association for sports and culture I’d founded in 1987 with a few friends, which I considered a way of strengthening ties born of the satisfaction of improving the island together.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/06-SU-24.jpg)
![From the moment this olive orchard was given to me, it became a sort of umbilical cord. Inherited from my paternal grandparents, it’s the sole tangible link I have with them today, since they were unable to will their grandchildren the four walls inside which their lives had unfolded.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/07-ban3.jpg)
![Upper Bonifacio sits atop a pedestal of cliff, and at its base, there’s a beach whose chalky cliffs wondrously refract light. Unless you’ve lived here, it’s hard to understand how we can appreciate a beach without any sand to speak of, where palpably uncomfortable boulders are the only place to lie down on.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/08-42-SU-19.jpg)
![Later on, as a teenager, my friends and I would gather at Sutt’à a Rocca, just as our parents had before us, as soon as the good weather returned. This beach was also a synonym for discovery. The sun shone brightly, summer had arrived, and these sea-caressed boulders proved providential to budding romances.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/09-Suttà-a-Rocca-Bonifacio-3.jpg)
![Difficult, disappointing beginnings for my Dutch parents, who came to the Ile du Levant in May 1957. They had decided to make it their home, motivated by their spirit of adventure and a desire to flee civilization. Penniless, my parents worked at a lot of odd jobs in order make their dream reality. After a while, Papa bought his first piece of land: 300 square meters on which he built our “monks’ bungalow”.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/10-SU-10.jpg)
![Part with this orchard ? I’d really have to be forced. The story of this piece of earth ties it forever to my roots. “Roots”: for me, all the force of this word’s meaning was revealed here.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/11-Bancarillu-arbre-PS.jpg)
![Leaving the town behind, just follow the crosses sprinkled along the roadside. A disorderly jumble of granite boulders surmounted by a cross announces the Trinity Hermitage, a magnificently modest small church. Its doors open occasionally for baptisms and weddings, joyful celebrations.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/12-Trinité-côté-PS7.jpg)
![Every evening, Papa planned the next day’s work, and only the next day’s work. Unique constancy. Thirty winters of dogged and solitary work, helped by Mama in the role of manual laborer.
Papa had considerable pride, so it was out of the question that anyone other than he build Le Ponant. During the entire time it took, I was never able to physically help him with the construction.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/13-Le-Ponant-entrée-chambre.jpg)
![I appreciate the silence present in this spot. The mystery of these surroundings, their timeless quality, contain healing virtues conducive to “getting out” of myself. They have often allowed me to gain perspective when it became necessary. I now know where I can come to get back in touch with myself and become quiet inside.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/14-trinité-autel.jpg)
![A village of eternity at the cliff’s edge, facing out over the sea, over immensity. For many years my Father and I strolled along the flower-bedecked alleyways of this cemetery cradled by sea and wind. On All Souls’ Day, we would pay a calm, meditative visit to my grandparents’ tomb and to my Father’s sister’s, whose name I have the burden of sharing. Our strolls were an unconventional way of becoming acquainted with my own history.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/15-SU-15.jpg)
![A slab of concrete is the symbol in my eyes of a double success: federating friends in the A.C.S.I.L. association and electrifying the island, twelve years ago. We volunteered our time and used up numerous weeks to level the large rocks, create an access and pour the concrete slab, initially destined for launching windsurfs and kayaks. United by the same project, we worked in a light-hearted convivial atmosphere, which almost made our physical exertion carefree. Almost.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/16-dalle2.jpg)
![EMULATION. At first, we were two or four, sawing branches, dragging them from the brush, burning them, smoothing the path as it was created. Little-by-little, explaining the purpose of our efforts, an increasing number of Levant inhabitants joined us. The last day, we numbered forty!](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/17-Parcours-tunnel-PS.jpg)
![As we became even older and obtained our driver’s license, we gradually deserted our beach, lured by “what lay beyond”. But it’s as if Sutt’à a Rocca left an indelible imprint on us. My girlfriends and I often talk about going back there again. Undoubtedly to recapture our childhood soul. Surely, yes...](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/18-sutta-roca1.jpg)
![For two years I was unable to do anything with this house that had been theirs, leaving it unoccupied and everything untouched. Then, I fell in love. Suddenly I felt the desire to inhabit the house, turn it into a love nest, experience the joy of sharing it with my new love. And I’d christen it “Solea”. Solea – what a beautiful word! It contained everything this house, the Levant and love represented for me.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/19-SU-17.jpg)
![In perfect symbiosis with the island and its philosophy, this modest bungalow was magical, an exact mirror of my parents’ pioneer souls, nudists in love with liberty, sun and solitude.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20-moines-fauteuil-déglingué.jpg)
![Today this small olive grove has been in abandon for the past few decades. I discover a neglected grove, invaded by brambles. I see the stone wall, a barrier protecting the trees from the gusts of wind so eager to blast along our coasts. I feel the silence soothing me, leaving me gradually deep in my thoughts, and in a haze beyond the stone wall, appear my grandparents, whom I fleetingly knew at the beginning of my life. Two people who disappeared too soon and whom I infinitely love.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/21-SU-23.jpg)
![The “monks’ bungalow”, the first house built by my Father on the island, has always been filled with atmosphere and odors for me. The materials used, mainly wood, permeated it with scents I’ve never encountered elsewhere. For a long time now it’s been almost totally abandoned, but for me it remains unchanged, because the atmosphere, the scents still linger after all these years.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/22-SU-08.jpg)
![VOLUPTUOUS. The word may seem strange in reference to building a wall, and yet ... What exists of it today was built during the winter of 1990 by three simple men: my Father, Jean-Paul who worked with me for 15 years, and me. The first year Papa stopped battling. He felt liberated from the stress linked to making unilateral decisions, and visibly, he was much the better for it. For the first time ever, he accepted helping his son, without judging him.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/23-Mur-de-Frets.jpg)
![Sutt’à a Rocca was a synonym for freedom. This was the only place to swim we could reach on foot, sometimes even barefoot. Going to the beach by myself, without one or both of my parents... I couldn’t have hoped for more. They trusted me. These were moments of independence which I fully relished.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/24-Suttà-a-Rocca-Bonifacio-5.jpg)
![The nouvelle marine, a contemporary group of buildings springing from the cliffs. A gaudily-colored piece of architecture, aggressive, annoying, devoid of any past.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/25-SU-03.jpg)
![The sea is captivating, enfolding. I love its changing moods, sometimes serene, other times frightening, furious. Unpredictable, indomitable, but always so very beautiful. What makes this beach even more enchanting to my eyes is everything I’ve experienced there.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/26-SU-21.jpg)
![As we visited the resting places of the departed, my Father lovingly related the town’s history to me. I learned an enormous amount about my family and about the life of the town. The stories were all the more vivid because they were told by my Father.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/27-SU-13.jpg)
![In 1989, when Papa retired, I took over, taking complete possession of Le Ponant, while respecting its roots. Progressively, I transformed it to resemble me: I desired a unique, convivial hotel where people would feel more like guests than clients. And it’s true, so many friendships have been born of the good times and the pleasures shared, there’s no doubt they’ve contributed to making me forget my rather solitary, only-son childhood.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/28-Ponant-transats-PS.jpg)
![The Saint Erasmus neighborhood – a small square at the foot of a steep incline paved with white stones, the heart of my family cradle.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/29-St.-Erasme-patricien-PS.jpg)
![My paternal grandparents disappeared while I was yet too young to retain my own memories of them. Adolescent, I never tired of hearing my great aunts, my grandmother’s sisters, evoke the lives of my relatives. Their story is quite simply my story. These stories shaped my “memories”, in the way they also modelled the mental pictures I have of them.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/30-St-Erasme-rue-nuit-PS.jpg)
![I believe Solea is the only place I’d really want to keep if one day I began a new life elsewhere- a real possibility - because this house truly brims with stories and emotions.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/31-SU-16.jpg)
![The Le Ponant adventure began the day I convinced my parents to open a hotel-restaurant in their ideally situated house.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/32-Ponant-clé-oiseau.jpg)
![Originally a construction shed, the house had been slowly improved. Nevertheless, it lacked a real kitchen and a bathroom. For Papa, that was just unnecessary luxury.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/33-Soléa-poignet-PS.jpg)
![Passion, warmth, mutual aid, resiliency, joy. These are the words I’ve always heard used to describe life in this neighborhood. People here didn’t have much money, and everyone found it natural to help the others out. I was forged in this spirit of sharing, a generous vision of life, in which valuing the other isn’t considered a weakness.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/34-St.-Erasme-couverts-PS.jpg)
![Day after day the house took shape, and I was fascinated by this papa builder, brusque and tender, and by this Mama helper. Our “monks’ bungalow” was where I lived during the years I went to school on the island. In this home, my feelings of integration and belonging developed.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/35-SU-09.jpg)
![When I came back to Bonifacio, these buildings had just been erected, and it wasn’t unusual to hear disparaging remarks concerning them. It’s difficult to describe the swirling emotions of the child I was at the time. Discovering I belonged to a family who had just upset the physiognomy of the small harbor became a burdensome handicap.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/36-SU-02.jpg)
![I succeeded, in cooperation with the Homeowners Association, in bringing electricity to the Ile du Levant. The day the cable arrived off the island, fifty of us helped the workers bring it in under our concrete slab. We were many more than fifty celebrating this event far into the night.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/37-SU-26.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/38-Ponant-applique-PS.jpg)
![For more than ten years now, it’s no longer my Father who accompanies me; instead it is I who accompany my Mother. My Father departed from us and was reunited with his family. Since his brutal disappearance, this cemetery has gained an entirely different dimension. It seems a familiar place to me because inhabited by my Father.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/39-SU-12.jpg)
![As we grew older, we became less enthusiastic about climbing the steep slope linking the Saint Erasmus neighborhood to Saint Roch’s chapel, the starting point of a long succession of steps leading down to our beach. How convenient the small touring boats taking visitors out to admire the cliffs and grottos! They would obligingly deposit us on one of the boulders and then pick us back up when we were exhausted and had had our fill of sun for the day](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/40-Suttà-violent-PS.jpg)
![Next to Saint Erasmus Church, the patron saint of fishermen, a heavy door always ajar, a stone staircase, a building entrance. An apartment on the third floor: the one my grandparents rented and where they raised their five children. . I would have liked to wander around the rooms, imagine their life, their daily activities here, soak in the atmosphere, touch things that had been part of their surroundings, eat the piece of cake saved for me on the kitchen table, open a chest of drawers, take in the scent of the linens, sit in an armchair or lay accross a bed and slowly be permeated by this part of me.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/41-SU-05.jpg)
![Every evening in this completely isolated bungalow facing the sea, I’d be reunited with my parents when I came back alone after school, following a narrow pathway recently cleared.
The sun’s rhythm governed our lives, we had no electricity, no amenities, our meals were frugal, but we were together.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/42-SU-07.jpg)
![A child of 11 doesn’t have sufficient perspective to defend a real-estate project which profoundly modified the landscape. I felt the need not to be singled out. My aim was to resemble everyone who had been born and raised here, everyone who respected their ancestors’ traditions.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/43-SU-04.jpg)
![I’ve often come with my childhood friends to the Trinity. Their children play, while we ourselves do not always feel compelled to speak. The complicity uniting us is more eloquent than words. We smile adolescent smiles, and in this atmosphere of suspended time, fully comprehend our friendship’s profound value and its gemlike gleam.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/44-trinité7confession.jpg)
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