Excerpt:
...Unfortunately nature gave me a taste for architecture and art but not the skills of a writer; however since truth needs no ornaments I shall simply expose the facts. A peasant’s son and a son of my works, I remained a peasant with the firm desire to show what you can achieve with a strong willpower and sustained work.

A friend of Nature but of humble origin
without grumbling I went through all the things
that often make life so hard.

Being a country postman like my 27000 colleagues, everyday I used to walk from Hauterives to Tersannes (in a region where obvious signs show it was once covered by the sea) sometimes running in the snow and ice, sometimes in the country in bloom – constantly walking in the same surroundings what could I do but dream? What about? My readers will ask me. Well! to change my mind, I used to build a fairy-like palace beyond imagination with all that the genius of a humble man could conceive (with grottoes, towers, gardens, castles, museums and sculptures) trying to bring back to life all the ancient architectures and primaeval times; the whole thing was so pretty, so picturesque that for at least ten years I could remember it vividly in my mind.