© Nicolas Borel – architect Christian de Portzamparc 4 · PDF fileTINTIN ALL OVER THE WORLD BY DOMINIQUE MARICQ A CONVENIENT RETREAT Switzerland was not far from Brussels and was

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© Hergé/Moulinsart 2012

© Nicolas Borel – architect Christian de Portzamparc

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Thanks to scouting, Hergé developed a lifelong passion for mountain hiking. Switzerland became his favourite place to enjoy his hobby.

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TINTIN ALL OVER THE WORLD BY DOMINIQUE MARICQ

A CONVENIENT RETREAT Switzerland was not far from Brussels and was a particularly convenient place to take holidays. When he wanted to escape work and put some distance between himself and his desk, Switzerland was Hergé’s preferred retreat. He still had fond memories of his scouting days and drew inspiration from the beautiful environment, going on long hikes in the mountains.In 1948, Hergé travelled to the municipality of Gland and stayed in the Hotel de la Plage (in the Canton of Vaud, half way between Geneva and Lausanne).On further travels and between fishing expeditions with his friends, he visited a furniture shop specialising in drawing desks, in Lausanne. Hergé was very impressed with a particular model, and ordered a desk to be delivered to Brussels. A few years later, he ordered more of the desks to equip the Studios Hergé.Far from the hustle and bustle of Brussels, Georges Remi enjoyed swim-ming, boating and fishing. He appreciated the jovial, plain-talking attitude of the fishermen he met on Lake Geneva, and took part in a fair bit of tomfoolery, including rowing all night on Lake Geneva in a light-hearted cross-border alcohol and cigarette smuggling operation!Hergé loved Switzerland profoundly, and he tried to capture its essence in photos. For Hergé, the real Switzerland was much richer than “the picture-perfect and neat country we see from a distance.”

From an inscription to Charlie Fornara drawn in a copy of The Broken Ear.

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HELVETIAN ADVENTURES In 1954, Hergé was working on the story-line of The Calculus Affair. Having evoked the best of technology in the Moon adventures, this new story would expose the darker side of science: the devastating power of an ultra-sonic machine, invented by Professor Calculus. As the Cold War escalated in real life, Hergé imagined a crisis between Syldavia and Borduria. Switzerland played a key role in the story as a neutral territory across which journeys would be made and in which key meetings would take place.Although Hergé knew Switzerland beyond the stereotypes, the quali-ties of precision and exactitude, typically associated with the country, appealed to him. Readers of the Moon adventures had been treated to an extremely realistic scientific backdrop, and a fine attention to detail. Hergé was not about to drop these qualities and for The Calculus Affair he decided to travel to the locations he would evoke in the story. Hergé informed his Swiss friends about the project and it was one of these friends, Jean Dupont, the editor of L’Écho Illustré, who accompanied him on his travels.

Panel taken from page 12 of The Calculus Affair.

Hergé partly based Professor Calculus on the famous Swiss scientist Auguste Piccard (1884-1962).


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Notes, sketches and photos were taken in abundance. The two men visited the airport, timed the journey to Cornavin station and surveyed the shores of Lake Geneva. They then set off for Nyon by car and while visiting the old town, stopped at the fire station (It was Jean Dupont who photographed the uniforms and the vehicles). Then it was back off to Geneva to find the place where, in the story, Tintin’s taxi falls into the Lake.

Somewhere between Geneva and Nyon, a Simca taxi comes off the road and plunges into the lake with all its passengers. Preparatory sketch and a panel from page 20 of The Calculus Affair.

Photographs taken by Jean Dupont at the Nyon fire station.

Fire service vehicles from Nyon in Switzerland. Preparatory sketch and a panel from page 27

of The Calculus Affair.

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Hergé continued his research with another friend. On the road to Saint-Cergue they spotted the villa that would serve as the villa of Professor Topolino, which is blown up in the story. In the municipality of Rolle Hergé searched for a building that could be sketched and used for the Bordurian Embassy. Then Hergé and his friend crossed Lake Geneva to continue their exploration in French territory.Hergé spoke about his Swiss adventure in 1975, during an interview: “The Calculus Affair marked the first time I travelled to take sketches and photographs of the places where the action would take place. I had to find, for example, the precise location where a car might leave the road to fall into Lake Geneva, between Geneva and Nyon.”

In The Calculus Affair the place names are authentic:

in 1947 Hergé photographed the statue in Rolle that you can see

in the second panel on the right.

The Bordurian embassy in The Calculus Affair was partly inspired by both the Geneva Hospitality School and the Rothschild family mansion.

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SWITZERLAND FOR EVER With his second wife Fanny, (who still lives in Switzerland today with her husband Nick Rodwell), Hergé continued to pay visits to Switzerland. Fanny remembers that, “My husband loved hiking in the Valais. We stayed at the Hotel Aux Milles Étoiles in Les Marécottes. He also adored the grape harvest festivals, which attended in Sierre. We also went on fantastic holidays to Ticino, staying at the Hotel Eden Roc in Ascona.”To let Hergé have the last word on Ascona and his holidays, here are a few lines he wrote on mail sent back to his colleagues at the office in Brussels. Hergé was fond of word games! “Ascona bien chaud ici !” 1 “Ascona de la chance d’avoir du beau temps !” 2 “Ascona pas tellement envie de rentrer en Belgique, au pays de la grisaille !” 3 “Et pour ceux qui n’auraient pas compris, je leur ferai un petit Tessin à mon retour à Bruxelles.” 4

Hergé visited Switzerland right up until the end of his life, mostly for holidays but sometimes for work. A few months before his death, in 1983, Hergé made one final trip to Ascona. ❚

1 - How hot it is here!2 - How lucky we are with the fine weather! 3 - How little we’re looking forward to coming back to colourless old Belgium!4 - And for those of you who don’t understand, I’ll draw you a picture when I come back to Brussels.

Postcards illustrated by Hergé, summarising his Swiss holidays with a mountain hike, fine wine and a flat tyre!


GRAPHIC DESIGN

KATEB

VIDEO

THOMAS BÉNICHOU

EDITOR

DOMINIQUE MARICQ

ADMINISTRATION

DELPHINE MAUBERT

MAGALI SOUBRAS

TRANSLATION

STUART TET T

PROOFREADING

PATRICK VANDERSLEYEN

COLLABORATORS

DOMINIQUE MARICQ

STUART TET T

JÉRÔME ALLARD

CHRISTIAN BERNARD

SOPHIE TCHANG

HERVÉ SPRINGAEL

Documents

© Nicolas Borel – architect Christian de Portzamparc 4 · PDF fileTINTIN ALL OVER THE WORLD BY DOMINIQUE MARICQ A CONVENIENT RETREAT Switzerland was not far from Brussels and was