A prominent French philosopher, psychoanalyst and newspaper columnist best known for her work on risk-taking has drowned after she swam out to try and save two children who were in trouble in the sea at a beach near Saint-Tropez.

Anne Dufourmantelle was apparently swept away by a strong current at the weekend when she intervened to help the children at Pampelonne beach on the French Riviera.

Attempts to resuscitate her failed after she was recovered.

The children, one of whom was believed to be the ten-year-old son of a friend of Ms Dufourmantelle, were brought by lifeguards to safety and were unharmed.

The red flag, which signals danger and means people should not swim, was flying at the beach at the time of the rescue attempt, according to local media reports which said that strong winds made conditions worsen.

French Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen paid tribute to Ms Dufourmantelle in a tweet, saying the 53-year-old was “a great philosopher, a psychoanalyst, she helped us to live, to think about today’s world.”

“The spell of risk is really about what is being in life. Is being in life just being born? Probably not. To me, risking your life is not dying yet, it’s integrating that you could be dying in your own life. Being completely alive is a task, it’s not at all a given thing. It’s not just about being present to the world, it’s being present to yourself, reaching an intensity that is in itself a way of being reborn.”

Anne Dufourmantelle

Source
Rory Mulholland
The Telegraph