He will never be able to be physically the man he was before. The writer who seemed to be a superman thanks to his often extreme journeys (5,000 kilometers on foot through the Himalayas, 31 countries crossed by rolling 25,000 kilometers with less than 1,000 euros in his pocket, incredible mountain climb and six months lived alone in a hut in Siberia without electricity or running water) fell, stupidly, while spending an evening with friends.
A very stupid fall
Back in August 2014. Sylvain Tesson is enjoying a stay with the author Jean-Christophe Rufin who lives not far from Mont-Blanc. Books and their shared passion for rock climbing bring them together. The son of the famous journalist Philippe Tesson lost his mother Marie-Claude Tesson-Millet a few weeks earlier. But that evening, the atmosphere is good. In the chalet we celebrate the upcoming release of his book Berezina. Lclimber Daniel Du Lac and publisher Ludovic Escande are also present. We eat well, we drink too and Sylvain Tesson ends up falling. He who was nicknamed The prince of cats because he used to climb mountains, buildings and churches without protection, he “broke the mouth of a gutter“. A fall of more than ten meters with disastrous consequences.
Lifelong sequelae
After more than ten days spent in a coma, he wakes up in the hospital and there, the news although unexpected because he could have died, are hard to hear. His vertebrae and skull are shattered, he is deaf in one ear, he has lost taste, and one side of his face is paralyzed.
His first reappearance on television, in We are not in bed (France 2) took place in February 2015, precisely to promote his book Berezina. Sunglasses on his nose, he sometimes holds his mouth to better articulate and announces with humor concerning his accident having “made a mistake“. Laurent Ruquier then made no secret of having been”very worried” for him.
Sylvain Tesson has recovered a little of his faculties over time but his face will unfortunately always keep the scars of this tragedy. “I have a very dirty face and it costs me to be in front of a lens (…) I have a cubic face, I can go flirt at the Picasso museum!“, he said with humor the same year to Chat.
A bruised body that doesn’t stop him
Her return to life and the battle with her body was complicated. Refusing re-education at the hospital, he decided to climb the 422 steps of Notre-Dame de Paris almost every day. An ascent by the steps for once which allowed him to get better. He had sworn that if he made it he would travel this time to France, he went On the black roads. A travelogue, another huge success that will be adapted to the cinema. The writer will be played by Jean Dujardin.
Sylvain Tesson who has never stopped working is at the heart of the news with the release in cinemas of The Snow Leopard, a film that echoes the eponymous book. He had traveled to Tibet with wildlife photographer Vincent Munier in search of the very rare animal.