OLIVIER ZAHM — How did you end up in Mexico?
EMMANUEL PICAULT — I arrived in Mexico City via three encounters. The first time was when I was eight or nine years old. I used to read everything I could find about Mexico. When my parents asked me what I wanted to be when I was older, I told them I wanted to be a Mexican. I was born in a ninth-century Viking village in Normandy, but all I could think about was the Mayas and the Aztecs, the pyramids. This wasn’t a history thing for me. I had the impression that this was something that was completely alive — and so very different!

OLIVIER ZAHM — And the second encounter with Mexico?
EMMANUEL PICAULT — When I was about 17, I did what just about everybody does —…