I was 6 years old when I touched a snake for the first time in a zoo and that was a revelation for me and my passion for animals. From that moment on, I decided to devote my life to studying these animals.

As I said, I try to remain a child by trying not to understand why animals exist on Earth but to understand their lives, their behaviour, their evolution and their history. My life has been full of fruitful encounters and unexpected situations that I've always been able to make the most of. This aspect of me has helped me throughout my life, even today.

I've always tried to understand why people were afraid of these animals, and I remember thinking when I was young:

"But if people are afraid of them, does that mean they're also afraid of us ?"

It seems I was right in a way, because snakes have always tried to avoid encounters with humans. Aware of this, they had no choice but to be one of the most intriguing animals in the whole animal kingdom for the young animal lover that I was, and still am.

Dr. Xavier Bonnet

At a very young age, I've been lucky enough to meet some very influential people in the field of herpetology.

In 2006, I met Gregory Provost, a forest ranger at the Arche de la Nature in Le Mans. He was, and still is, organising walks with the public to raise awareness of snakes in France. He explained and introduced people to these animals, and seeing him fascinates me and inspires me a lot for my future.

Then, a few months later, I met Xavier Bonnet, internationally renowned for his work on snakes. I knew him from documentaries and books, but meeting him in the flesh changed my life because I managed to open a door that I'll never close again.

As a mentor, he has been a source of motivation for me in my passion. What's even nicer is that we're still in contact and we're continuing to build this relationship based on trust and respect. I was lucky that my parents were friends with him and his family. So I saw him from time to time during the year for various reasons.

Dr. Anthony Herrel

Since high school, I've never had the opportunity to do an internship or anything to do with snakes... And in a way, I've never had the opportunity to actually take part in a study on reptiles.

But during my second year of undergraduate studies, I was lucky enough to get an internship at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The man who gave me my first chance to work on snakes was Anthony Herrel. From that moment on, I was even more convinced to study snakes for the rest of my life.

Anthony placed his trust in me and I appreciate that enormously. He allowed me to work on the snake's collection of this magnificent institution, the Muséum of Paris. I still talk to him about my studies and projects on reptiles every time and we are now very close. He has helped me in my career choices at various levels and I think he will help me again in the future. He introduced me to laboratory work and I really enjoyed it. It also made me aware of the incredible diversity of snakes and the amount of work that still needs to be done on snakes.

I think he and Xavier are two of the best known and respected hereptologists in France and they are now people I know very well. I couldn't have imagined anything better when I was still an undergraduate in France.

I was lucky enough to have parents who pushed me in my passions and that's also why I became more and more fascinated by reptiles the more I came into contact with them. My mother is a nature lover and snakes have always been one of her favourite animals and I may have inherited her passion for snakes when she was young. It was through my father that I met Xavier, and that changed my life.

My father helped me develop my passion for motor sports and scuba diving, which are still two of my greatest passions today. In the mean time, my mother travelled with me all over France to visit reptilariums and meet snake enthusiasts.

I don't think I would have met half the people I know today who are important to me and my future without them. I know I'm very lucky to have them as parents, and I'm grateful to them every day for continuing to push me in all my passions.