“Do you feel more patriotic towards France or the EU?”
Hervé Delphin, the European Union’s Ambassador to India, paused, eyes drifting to the sunlit expanse beyond his Delhi office, which has a strong “let’s get to the point” vibe, on a Friday morning in mid-July.
“To Europe,” he replied without hesitation, then adding, “but I remain deeply attached to my French identity and culture.”
I pressed on, half in jest: “How’s that even possible—being patriotic towards two entities at the same time?”
“Probably it’s easy for us Europeans to feel both citizens of Europe and of their country —especially for people like me, EU bureaucrats.”
Tall, French, stylish, and unmistakably at ease in his Delhi posting, Delphin sports custom-tailored suits made locally, immerses himself in Indian literature, and has developed a preference for Chausa mangoes over Langra.
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Delphin’s story begins in La Rochelle— “born and raised by the Atlantic coast in La Rochelle, France”— a port city where the ocean was a bridge, not a barrier; where the closest border was “the horizon line of the ocean”, and borders themselves felt “pretty remote”. “A city of merchants and traders,” La Rochelle’s reach stretched from northern Europe to Africa, and once upon a time, even to India and China. La Rochelle has always been an active harbour, bustled with ships unloading “exotic timber imports or exporting salt, wine (in the past), cereals, and pulses to faraway places.”