Jean-Louis Bernezat

Biography

Jean-Louis Bernezat born in 1936 in Valence (Drôme) in France is an explorer and Saharan guide. He is the author of guides and books on the Sahara. Son of Paul Bernezat, director and professor of the School of Art of Valence, Jean-Louis Bernezat began his career as a high mountain guide in the Alps in 1961. He met his wife Odette in 1963 in Chamonix. He, originally from Valence, is a high mountain guide. She, also passionate about the mountains, she studied natural sciences to become a geologist. This girl from the South, born in La Ciotat, will finally learn to ski and become a ski instructor. Both of them climbed the summits, “Bernouze” (as he was nicknamed) opening more than one route… After many races in the Alps and Alaska, he discovered the desert in 1967 while climbing in the Hoggar massif in Algeria. From then on, his interest focused on the desert and he multiplied the camel treks and camel treks. In 1969, he created with Odette - also a mountaineer - the agency Hommes et Montagnes, through which he would share his taste for the desert with many enthusiasts: he organized the discovery of the Sahara by transposing the model of high mountain guides to the Saharan desert. “Without false modesty, no European has made as many camel journeys as I have done in my life,” says Bernouze (everyone calls him that, even Odette). "We had a lot of fun in the Sahara," agrees Odette, who has several story books to her credit as well as countless hours on the back of camels. Unbeatable in their knowledge of the desert, the famous specialist Théodore Monod received them and offered them tea, which amounts to having knighted them, they have become the best guides. For years, the couple has been guiding not only novices in search of adventure but all sorts of specialists, archaeologists or geologists, botanists and why not linguists.