From May 30 to June 1, 2025, the Nice Book Festival will celebrate its 29th edition. The chosen theme, “Set Sail,” broadens the horizon. It invites us to distance ourselves, explore, and question our relationship with the world. Allain Bougrain-Dubourg will be the honorary president.
A familiar figure to the general public, known for his commitment to living beings. For over 60 years, Allain Bougrain-Dubourg has championed the animal cause. As a child, he wondered about what was “beyond the horizon.” It was on the beaches of Île de Ré that he discovered wildlife. It was at the Natural History Museum of La Rochelle that he developed a passion for birds. From a young age, he observed, studied, and was moved. And above all, he was outraged.
President of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) since 1986, he has tirelessly warned about the dangers threatening biodiversity: oil spills, pesticides, poaching, ecosystem destruction. He embodies a fight that is built over time.
For more than 30 years, he hosted animal programs on television and radio, notably on France Television and Europe 1. He has produced and directed numerous documentaries. He also ran, from 1989 to 2002, a collection of books and records dedicated to nature, with Atlas and Frémeaux & Associés.
Allain Bougrain-Dubourg is the author of around twenty books. His first, The Agony of Baby Seals, was published in 1978. In it, he denounces the hunting of whitecoats on the ice floes. His latest book, City in Green, published in 2022, questions the place of nature in our urban environments. He is also the author of two dictionaries published by Plon, dedicated to birds and wildlife.
A Keen Eye on Current Ecological Challenges
A few weeks before the upcoming United Nations Conference on the Ocean, which will take place in Nice in June, his presence as honorary president takes on particular significance.
During the Festival, the topics will likely include commitment, the threats to species, but also beauty and listening. For he believes that animals are not so different from us. “Loving, suffering, cheating, helping, laughing are not exclusive to humans,” he writes.
Under the artistic direction of Franz-Olivier Giesbert, the Festival will host more than 200 authors. The full program will soon be available on the websites of the city of Nice and the Festival.