For Benedict Donnelly, the pill is bitter. “We started the process in early January and then, all of a sudden, in mid-March, we abandon it in the middle of nowhere,” he regrets, denouncing a decision that he considers “unexpected and impromptu”, taken, in his opinion, in an opaque manner. Beyond governance, it is the lack of regard for partners that hurts him. “It’s very unpleasant. I find it distressing, first of all for the jury members. These are people who have been voluntarily taking on this responsibility for years, they don’t deserve to be treated like this. It’s brutal,” he says.
A model out of breath
From the current management’s perspective, any impulsive decision is refuted. Emmanuel de Fontainieu, at the helm of CIM since 1993, stands by a rational and structural choice, decided by the board of directors. “We will not reproduce the Memoirs of the Sea in the future, it’s a choice,” asserts the director. For him, the classic literary award model was running out of steam, caught up in changing practices. “It’s not just a budget issue, even though the situation is difficult for culture and we are heavily self-financed,” he explains. He particularly highlights a shift in public behavior within the institution: “We have exactly the same bookstore turnover this year as last year, even though the CIM’s attendance has increased. People are reading less and therefore buying fewer books.” A reality that pushes CIM to rethink its spaces, with the future project of combining the bookstore and souvenir shop at the end of the tour in a large “single point of sale.”
Emmanuel de Fontainieu emphasizes that CIM relies heavily on bringing back “L’Hermione,” “it takes means and energy,” and judges the real impact of the award: “We cannot say that our Sea Memoirs Prize emerged after twenty years of activity at the national level. There are many awards in this field.”
Indeed, CIM wants to turn the page to embrace the new cultural project of its president Olivier Poivre d’Arvor. “The thematic axis is the meeting between land and sea, the question of estuaries, rivers, territory, nature, biodiversity,” details Emmanuel de Fontainieu. “Our project is evolving, that’s why we are organizing the Rochefort Encounters in October 2026 on the theme of the living, it’s a first and a test.” So, goodbye to the high seas, faraway places, and literary awards ceremonies, CIM is focusing on targeted events or artist exhibitions, such as the installation “Totems” by artists Coco Fronsac & Jim Skull.
But Benedict Donnelly does not intend to let his initiative fade away without reacting. Outside of his built heritage, the former Rochefort resident wonders if “Rochefort still has the ingredients today to make this city a unique place to talk about the sea?” Refusing to accept defeat, he is looking for a new owner and considering the next steps because he had hoped to organize “an event this year that would mark the 20th anniversary of the award.” However, the former president of the Hermione-La Fayette association recalls that, due to a lack of partners, the Memories of the Sea festival, held every two years, was also suspended. He acknowledges that to maintain this multi-day event, the budgetary balance had become untenable.
