About
I have never quite known how to explain what Léonce Chenal is.
It is not something I decided one day, nor a project drawn up in advance. It came slowly. One text, then another. A season passing. An attention slowly shifting. And, over time, a way of writing that settled in.
Here, I write about style, beauty, and the art of living, as ways of inhabiting everyday life. Simple things, sometimes almost imperceptible, that take on importance the moment we allow ourselves to look at them a little longer.
Léonce Chenal was built this way: text after text, season after season. Some pages are read once, others call for return. Nothing is meant to be consumed quickly. The texts echo one another, shift, and complement each other. You can enter anywhere, read little or often, step away, then return, without ever feeling late.
I am French. My gaze is shaped by it, without effort, without claim, without performance. It appears in the way I choose, the way I tell, the way I leave space for silence. In an attention paid to repeated gestures, to discreet details, to things that endure longer than they shine. I write from what I know, what I live, what surrounds me.
Léonce Chenal is made of texts discovered slowly: articles, letters, almanacs, more confidential editions, pages sometimes visible, sometimes hidden. An ensemble that does not reveal itself all at once, but allows itself to be approached.
I write alone, and I have done so since 2018. I write slowly, often in the morning, always over time. At times, I do not know exactly why I write, only that this is how things hold together. I do not write to explain or to persuade. I try to put words to sensations, gestures, ordinary choices, with restraint, without seeking to do more than necessary.
There is no right way to read Léonce Chenal. You may arrive by chance, through a letter, an article, a season. Read little. Read often. Go back. Let time pass. Sometimes, it is enough to come upon the right text at the right moment. For those who wish, a Lexicon exists, to orient, to offer a few points of reference.
Léonce Chenal is for those who care about beauty in all its forms, and who seek a quieter, more deliberate space in which to read and think. A place that asks for nothing, except a measure of attention.
Léonce Chenal is not meant to be read once, but to be kept close like a place one returns to, even when one does not yet know exactly what one is looking for.
Each week, a letter extends this writing and accompanies readers over time.
This is how Léonce Chenal continues to be written.
Léonce.
