Odette Bernezat

Biography

Odette Bernezat was born in La Ciotat in 1941 and is a French guide and writer. Odette met her husband Jean-Louis in the early sixties. Passionate about the mountains, Odette and Jean-Louis met in Chamonix. He, originally from Valence, was a high mountain guide. She studied natural sciences to become a geologist. This girl from the South, born in La Ciotat, would eventually learn to ski and become a ski instructor. Both of them climbed the summits, “Bernouze” (as he was nicknamed) opening more than one route… Then ski instructors in La Plagne, a trip allowed them to discover the Hoggar, the desert and the Tuaregs together in 1967. They founded the structure “Hommes et Montagnes” which allowed their clients to discover the desert, to share the life of the Tuaregs. For over thirty years, they have taken not only “tourists” to the Sahara, but also scientists, archaeologists, botanists, geologists and ethnologists. Both are also art lovers and collectors of paintings. Odette Bernezat is the author of several books: Hommes des montagnes du Hoggar, Hommes et vallées du Haut-Atlas, Campements touaregs and Mémoires sahariennes which have earned her a loyal following. In their house overlooking the town of Voiron, Odette and Jean-Louis Bernezat are surrounded by numerous African objects, books and large canvases by contemporary painters, accumulated over the years and during their travels.