Coline Renault

Tant qu’il y a l’océan

May 7, 2026
Narrative
288 pages
140 × 210 mm
22 €
9782357662186
978-2-3576-6218-6
																Coline Renault, Tant qu’il y a l’océan
																Coline Renault, Tant qu’il y a l’océan

Nicole is 74 years old and lives aboard cruise ships. So do Françoise, Nadine, and Michel. They are known as “back-to-back” passengers, who go from one cruise to the next without ever disembarking. This colorful group has decided to swap the daily routine of a retirement home for a never-ending voyage.

Coline Renault, 28, embarked with these old pirates on a cruise in the North Sea, accompanied by her grandmother Andrée, a Normandy native who is as rough around the edges as she is mischievous. Anxious about the passing of time, the young journalist sees her certainties shaken by a question that haunts her: is old age always a shipwreck?

A funny and poetic journey, halfway between reportage and coming-of-age story.

Les Échappés
The author

Coline Renault is a journalist at Charlie Hebdo. She won the Varenne Young Magazine Journalist Award (2024) and the Mémoires de la Mer Award for her book, Pêcheur d’hommes (éd. des Équateurs, 2025).

May 7, 2026
Narrative
288 pages
140 × 210 mm
22 €
9782357662186
978-2-3576-6218-6
Les Échappés