Gabriel Anctil was only five years old and barely three apples tall when he first experienced travel fever, leafing through the yellowing and scratched pages of an old encyclopedia bought for a few dollars in a clearance sale.
Armed with scissors, he carefully cut out all the images of the places that made him dream. “Then found themselves jumbled together in a white envelope: the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids and the Egyptian sphinx, the Tower of Pisa, Big Ben, the Colosseum in Rome, the statues of the Easter Island, the Forbidden City, Mayan and Inca temples, Machu Picchu, mountains, volcanoes, rivers and even this lake whose name made me burst into laughter every time I heard it: Lake Titicaca ” , he writes in Travel the paths of the world. 40 travel stories around the globe.
This momentum towards elsewhere has only increased over the course of his childhood readings, from Tintin to Asterix, including Jules Verne. It is however his meeting with Jack Kerouac and his famous novel On the road, at 14, who sealed this pact with adventure forever. “It is as if, until then, I had perceived only a tiny percentage of the possibilities of the universe,” says the author, joined by The duty. Suddenly, I discovered that I could hitchhike, experience new cultures, new ways of living, new beliefs. I understood that in order to have something to tell one day, I had to accumulate experiences, and that it would involve traveling. “
With Walk the paths of world– which brings together articles published in The duty and in magazines Space and New project -, Gabriel Anctil invites the reader to follow in his footsteps in the heart of the places, the beauties and the stories that have marked him in recent years.
We therefore discover the Côte d’Azur and Charlevoix through the great painters who lived there, Prague around the words of Kafka, Hong Kong through the flavors and the stubborn scents of its night markets and Barcelona through its balloon fever and independence.
Awaken the senses
“Writing travel articles is for me the most literary form that the profession of journalist can take. It allows me to recreate a universe, to shape characters, to immerse the reader in the atmosphere and to awaken his five senses by immersing him in what we taste, what we smell, what we feel. ‘we see and what we hear. With this book, I hope to be able to allow people to escape for a few minutes. “
Curious by nature, eager for a change of scenery, Gabriel Anctil avoids at all costs the trails hammered out a thousand times by the same hordes of tourists and the galore souvenir shops where boaters who disembark for barely a few hours crowd. It is the soul of cities and mountains – or what remains of them – that the writer seeks to capture and put into words.
“Before arriving there, I always do a lot of research to immerse myself in the place, to understand what shaped it, what makes it different from others, what animates its inhabitants and what attracts artists to it. I learn about its history and its politics, I read its great writers and let myself be lulled by its music. It allows me to target an angle – and a very precise route. “
Relearn the world
Approaching a place through its great achievements, its works and its revolutions does not come without its share of disappointments – from which Gabriel Anctil does not hide. “I am a huge fan of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. To me, Seattle was the Mecca of grunge music. However, it has become a super rich city, crowded with people in suits and ties. Reality caught up with me in no time, ”he laughs.
His collection is above all filled with grandiose landscapes, intoxicating experiences, unforgettable moments, self-discovery and openness to others. The most touching texts are those which recount the author’s journeys with his 10 and 13-year-old boys, to whom he made a point of giving a taste for adventure.
“Through their eyes, I learn a new way of looking at the world, as if I were becoming a child again. It’s magical to see them discover the emotions aroused by a sunset, endless water or a squall that lifts the leaves. “
Assigned like most of us to residence since the start of the health crisis, Gabriel Anctil admits to having ants in his legs. He hopes to inspire readers to take to the seas and think outside the box.
“The journey brings an opening to the world and to others. Understanding all these parallel destinies makes us more tolerant, more humanistic. It also gives us a different perspective on where we live. I appreciate much more the security, the wealth, the social solidarity that we enjoy in Quebec. We are so lucky! “
Excerpt from Traveling the paths of the world