Luc Montagnier Biographical
I was born on August 18, 1932 in Chabris, a “bourg”, larger than a village but smaller than a town, located in Berry south of the Loire Valley. This was – and still is – a region of agriculture with some renowned products such as welsh rabbit, goat cheeses and white asparagus. It was the place where my mother had grown up but, in fact, I never lived there. On my father’s side, his parents came from Auvergne, a province in the centre of France, made of rich plains and old volcanoes, the latter probably being at the origin of my family name: Montagnier, the man living in mountains. In his youth, my father had caught a terrible disease: streptococcal arthritis, ending in irreversible lesions in the aortic valves. He was therefore declared unfit for military service and had to find a sedentary job: he became an accountant and excelled in this profession, which implied, at that time, mainly hand-written work. He started working in the Poitiers area and then moved a little farther north to C...
