FÊTE RENÉ CAILLIÉ ET FESTIVAL DE L’AVENTURE INDIVIDUELLE

René Caillié was the first European to have entered the city of Timbuktu and to return alive at the very beginning of the 19th century, in 1828. He had accomplished this feat (5,000 km in 17 months, including 208 days of walking and terrible physical and moral tests), in a context of French-English rivalry. René Caillié was born in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, where he has his bust, built on one of the bridges and his statue in the lower part of the village. Admittedly, he did not live there for long, going into exile in Charente-Maritime, but the great history of the two-Sevrians holds that he was born there. Using various tricks and chances, this adventurer had gone to the end of his dream. The spirit of René Caillié remained for this festival of Individual Adventure which brings together his spiritual heirs every year in November. Those who have had a personal adventure, their "personal legend", as Umberto Eco would say, and share it in all simplicity, can be found here. These fans of surpassing oneself take part in debates with film screenings and give vicariously to live this desire hidden in everyone who, why not, can wake up on this occasion.