From Ukraine, we know the bombings, the women who gave birth in the corridors of the metro, the siege of Mariupol, and all the atrocities of war. However, it is also a country with its own culture, gastronomy and history.
To discover the riches of Ukraine, Sidonie Bonnec receives Tetiana Andrushchuk and Daniele Georget.
Tetiana Andrushchuk is a doctor of musicology, author and violinist. Born in Ukraine, she was cultural attaché at the Ukrainian Embassy in Paris. She introduced her country to Daniele Georget, author, journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of Paris Match. Together they wrote the Ukraine love dictionary published by Plon.
Balzac had a love affair with a Ukrainian woman
While living in Paris, Balzac receives a letter from Odessa in Ukraine. It is a woman who writes to him to express her admiration. She does not give her name and signs “L’Étrangère”. Balzac immediately falls in love with this mysterious woman. It’s actually about Countess Eveline Hanska, descendant of one of the old families of the Polish aristocracy of Ukraine and married to a sick man older than her. Balzac dreams of meeting her.
Countess Hanska makes the trip to Switzerland and they meet for the first time on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel in 1833. It’s love at first sight. For eight years, from 1834 to 1841, they wrote to each other without seeing each other. Balzac sends him more than 4,000 pages of correspondence.
Éveline Hanska is waiting for the death of her husband to be free. Balzac works like a slave, publishing book after book, spending and living beyond his means, hiding his adventures with passing lovers.
In 1841, Eveline Hanska’s husband finally died. Balzac and the Countess meet again two years later, after these years of separation. The two romantic lovers spend two months in Saint Petersburg before going on many trips together.