teaching, he was professor at the University of Nancy and later at the Sorbonne, where he concentrated on oceanography and hydrology, with a rapidly developing interest in coral reef morphology. In 1970 he left Paris for a professorial chair at Brest, where
he built up an influential research unit focusing on marine geography. Scientific expeditions took him to coastal and marine locations across the globe. Despite emphasizing physical geography in research, he believed in the unity of the discipline
After having been trained at the Sorbonne, this pioneering geographer spent much of his career at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, where he researched the impact of pioneer settlements, the development of coffee production, and the growth
of that city. Drawing on ideas from various social sciences, he explored linkages between coffee producers and the global commodity trade. After returning to France, he taught at several institutions of higher learning including the Sorbonne and a new institute
for Latin American studies in Paris that he headed. His position in French geography was transitional between Vidalian orthodoxy and innovations inspired by social sciences in the second half of the twentieth century. His legacy is both to regional geography
A direct disciple of Vidal de la Blache, Raoul Blanchard undertook doctoral research on Flanders and then devoted the remained of his career to the French Alps, where he headed the Institut de Geographie Alpine at Grenoble and edited the Revue de
Geographie Alpine. Together with his doctoral students, he challenged the academic hegemony of geographers at the Sorbonne. His studies of Grenoble and Annecy were pioneer works in urban geography. Starting in 1917, he taught for part of most years in North
American universities and undertook a massive research project on Quebec that gave rise to many volumes. At the age of sixty, he started another major project on the geography of the western Alps, making this the most studied region of France. - (HC)
Through his teaching and especially his writing, P. George influenced generations of schoolchildren, students and academics. After submitting a traditional regional monograph on the Bas-Rhône for his doctoral thesis, he focused his writing
on the USSR before broadening out to global themes in human geography, which he interpreted using Marxist insights. Growing disillusionment with communism during the middle of the 1950s led his to leave the party and weakened his intellectual commitment
to Marxism. After school teaching and then lecturing at Lille, he taught at the Sorbonne for a quarter of a century, but found the demands of students and workers in 1968 beyond his comprehension. Despite failing sight and general health, he continued
Robequain was a pioneer of colonial and tropical geography who produced the first field-based doctoral monograph on a region in the tropical world, the Thanh Hoa in Annam. He was a passionate traveller who visited many tropical lands and wrote
a shoal of books and articles about them. He was a consistent defender of benevolent colonialism, whereby France and other European nations had a moral duty to improve the lot of their subjects in colonial lands. He held a chair at the Sorbonne and taught
to French readers. He held no academic qualification and never taught in a French university. However, he possessed an amazing memory and belonged to many scientific networks in France and abroad. His role as director of the Service de la carte geologique de
l’Alsace et de la Lorraine was a disappointment. He served for many decades on the editorial board of the Annales de Geographie, specializing in aspects of physical geography. His many publications remain a remarkable testament in the history
The doctoral work of Jean Tricart pioneered French climatic geomorphology and the study of periglaciation. Strongly influenced by his mentors at the Sorbonne, he placed great emphasis on the interaction of physical and human processes to produce
geographical environments, and on the detailed recording of landforms through geomorphological mapping. Spending the whole of his professorial career at Strasbourg, he established an innovative centre for applied geography that used geographical knowledge
geography and ‘ecogeography’. A man of strong opinions, with an allegiance to the far left of politics, he alienated some colleagues while earning the admiration of others. - (HC)
André Siegfried belonged to a rich and culturally privileged political family. He travelled widely and frequently, acquiring first-hand experience of many parts of the world. In Paris, he occupied chairs of economic and political geography
at the Ecole libre des Sciences politiques, and at the Collège de France. On the basis of his observations and personal enquiries, he wrote many books about international affairs that reached a wide academic and popular audience in France and abroad. His
Pierre Deffontaines developed his interest in geography through a youthful fascination with maps and the countryside. He was captivated by human geography s taught and written about by Jean Brunhes. Deffontaines presented his doctoral thesis
on the regional geography of the Garonne valley, and then occupied teaching positions at the Catholic University in Lille, and at universities in Brazil and Quebec. He was also the long-serving director of the French Institute in Barcelona. He was a prolific
Like many geographers of his generation, P. Pinchemel was an all-rounder and undertook research in geomorphology, population geography, urban studies and the history of geography. Holding university chairs in Lille and then in Paris, he became
deeply involved in spatial planning and regional development, and was active in the International Geographical Union. He strove to introduce French geographers to new ideas in the discipline that were developing in anglo-saxon countries. He was a firm
Aimé Perpillou was in every respect a classical French geographer trained in Paris by the direct disciples of Vidal de la Blache and remaining faithful to the ideas and practices of Albert Demangeon, his father-in-law. He saw his role
as that of an educator and, like Demangeon, wrote useful texts for students, teachers and pupils at various stages of education. As a professor he was clear and comprehensive, displaying his belief in the unity of geography (physical, regional and cartographic), but he
Lionel Lyde was an influential pioneer among British geographers, writing short textbooks for British schoolchildren during the 1890s and giving extension lectures at Glasgow and Oxford. After a period in school teaching, he accepted an invitation
to occupy the new chair of economic geography at University College London, then the only geographer in the United Kingdom to hold professorial title. He presented his views vigorously in lectures and in textbooks, never failing to draw on anthropological
monograph on the lower Rhône valley. He was an all-rounder in both teaching and research, but his preference was for rural geography. Teaching at the University of Toulouse for a quarter of a century, he pioneered the promotion of geographical research
on the physical geography of mountains but also examined human activities in harsh upland environments. He was firmly committed to the unity of the discipline of geography and insisted that theories should be tested by personal enquiries and observations
the Institut de Géographie for a decade and mentored a hundred doctoral students. He was president of the International Geographical Union, 1972–76. A long and active retirement was devoted to academic travel, scientific writing and campaigning on behalf
in thegeography of western France. After Rennes, Vacher taught at Lille but his career wasinterrupted by World War I and he died young. Musset left his mark in the literature and in the lives ofhis students but he remained little known beyond France. – (HC)
André Cholley was educated in the city of Lyon where he was taught by Emmanuel de Martonne. Cholley’s doctoral work on the Pre-Alps of Savoy embraced Vidalian regional geography and a Davisian approach to landscape analysis. Appointed