International audienceThe work of François Place is at the intersection of documentary and fiction, of historical or geographical reality and the imaginary. Traveler of time and space, the French artist has the gift of taking his readers of all ages through his lines, strokes, and colors into parallel universes. In turn, illustrator, author, and novelist, Place also has the genius of rethinking the very concept of children’s picture books.Born in 1957, to a schoolteacher mother and a mosaic artist father, François Place spent his childhood in Ezanville, a small town located about 20 kilometers north of Paris. He was eleven years old when the Place family moved to Touraine where his grandparents lived. François pursued his secondary studies at Tours. With a literary baccalaureate in hand, he left the Valley of the Loire in 1974, and undertook three years of advanced study in Paris, at the Ecole Estienne, a school of advanced studies for the arts and graphics industries. After graduation, he started out in business communication, publishing and advertising. In 1983, he began illustrating at Hachette, collaborating on the “Bibliothèque Rose” collection, where he participated in republishing the works of the Countess of Ségur. For Hachette Jeunesse always and for “Le Livre de Poche” collection, he worked with Henriette Bichonnier and Roselyne Morel. In 1985, he met Pierre Marchand, editor at Gallimard Jeunesse, who noticed his drawings for youth. His career as an illustrator seemed to skyrocket from this point. Gallimard entrusted him with the illustration of a series of five documentaries for the “Découverte Cadet” collection, having as a subject the discovery of the world, the great conquerors, explorers and navigators