‘There is something tactile that the English language can never poke into like French can. There are tactile words, like asbestos and other concrete words the Anglo-Saxon is drawn to. Whereas French words are more lyrical. It has something to do with listening and this texture of sorts.’ British academic, literary critic, poet and translator Stephen Romer, lives in the valley of the Loire where he is Maître de Conferences at the English department of Tours University. Stephen specializes in French Decadent Literature, the artistic movement that placed the erotic at the heart of its aesthetic.