61 years with the one you love. Wow, Bob, you are one lucky guy. Should you write about your hot encounters? The important thing is all those memories of good times that you have. I guess there are only three important things that make a life - those we've loved, those who've loved us, and the memories we have

Hello Bob,

I’ve been one of the readers enjoying your memoirs. 61 years with your wife is something to be celebrated!

You’re a skilled writer, and your life experiences have been very interesting to follow.

You ask whether you should write about your "hot" bi encounters? Not if you're reluctant. Those memories are yours! There are themes, however, that never fail to interest me as a reader of both fiction and non-fiction.

I am always curious about a person’s process of self-discovery, self-acceptance or rejection of self. Can self-acceptance be traced back to early experiences, upbringing, a significant relationship, or was acceptance a gradual process over the years?

You had some connection to the film industry in Europe as well as membership in the more conservative societies for engineers and architects. Was there more acknowledgment of bisexuality or homosexuality, even if it was unspoken or underground, by those with whom you associated in the arts as opposed to your contemporaries in the industrial occupations?

Your business ventures took you to several countries over the years. Your most recent chapter mentioned both Algeria and France (Paris) and the relative ease or difficulty of pursuing sexual relations in those countries. The observations on how sexuality (straight or gay) is experienced in different countries is very interesting. As I read your memoirs, I am reminded that your generation experienced a huge change in society’s sexual mores, again both straight and gay.

Please don't feel obligated to answer any of these questions. Whatever you choose to write about, you definitely found a loyal reader in me! I enjoy historical accounts, particularly biographies and memoirs. Thanks for sharing yours. -Percy

Hello Percy,

Thanks for your comment and your interesting questions.

I will answer later, I need to think about it, because I want to be clear enough with myself !

Hi Percy, here my comments. What do you think about ?

I knew early on that I was attracted to both sexes. My first experiences date back to my early teens. I first experienced my sexuality with a boy at the age of 14 years (I wrote about in one of my first blogs), so I waited until age 18 to make love with a girl.

My future wife was not the first, I had a 'hunting list' before her. The story of our first meeting is funny. This is she who dredged me first. Her former friend was unfaithful and she wanted to make him jealous by offering me to go out with her. After several meetings, we fell in love and my oldest son was born nine months later ! (condoms were a rarity then .

I've always been aware of my bisexuality. It was and is part of myself. I've never felt different. For me, as for Kinsey, bisexuality is common to all men and women (Introducing his famous scale, Kinsey wrote: “males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that Nature rarely deals with discrete categories ... The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects”).

I was lucky to have many diverse activities, which allowed me to travel and to easily find opportunities to meet with strangers, some of whom became later friends. There were always only physical pleasures, strictly with males. But the warmth was never excluded, it was necessary for the meeting to be pleasant from the start.

We were in the sixtees and seventees. In all environments where I practiced my activities, homosexuality was a taboo subject and nobody talked about it openly. The homosexuality of some artists and writers (Jean Marais, Jean Cocteau, for example) was part of their private sphere and didn't bother anyone.

Later, after 1984, my children led me to be active in the gay community and to demonstrate my careful comprehension .My daughter Cathy (born 1958) got AIDS and I took care of her till her death in 2003 and my son Nic (born 1964) came out to us in 1989. He now lives for 15 years with the same partner and the two participate together to all our family celebrations.

Today, at my age, the physical attraction is nothing more than a purely aesthetic pleasure. I am content with my memories.

In summary, self-acceptance was always a fact from the beginning. As I allready said, I've never felt different, maybe because I never experienced any rejection.. My wife accepted me as I am. She knows that our love is the strongest, then as now.