"When you read this letter, I will be between heaven and sea, sailing toward a destination you will know later." But where did Camille Saint-Saëns go? In the spring of 1890, at the height of his fame, the illustrious composer left Paris without a word, or almost. He was seeking to "cut all ties" in order to "recreate himself," he wrote in a letter to a close friend. The public was stunned and stirred; reporters set out to find him, and rumors circulated about a possible suicide. The saga of his disappearance dominated the headlines. Saint-Saëns was accustomed to fleeing his social obligations to find refuge, under a pseudonym, in the four corners of the world: the Canary Islands, Algeria, Egypt, Ceylon, Indochina... A tireless creator and workaholic, he was often close to exhaustion. But now, no one knows where he's hiding. A child prodigy (he gave recitals from the age of 10 and played Beethoven by heart), adored organist and pianist, feared polemicist, passionate globetrotter, but al