It’s a good question actually: what is BD? Who are these ominous-sounding bédéphiles? And why does there seem to be a delicate balance of hormones, red wine and bandes dessinées flowing through the veins of French males?

I decided to investigate.

Lucky for me, it didn’t require a mission any more taxing than a weekend back to Guillaume’s hometown, Angoulême, for the International Comic Book Festival. Yup, that’s right - bandes dessinées (BD) are comic books.

When I first arrived in France from Russia, a few years ago now, for a two-week summer vacation with Guillaume, I was a little stunned on seeing his childhood bedroom. Admittedly, he had left the place for his studies at about 15, but nevertheless, it was quite an eerie souvenir of his youth. What really shocked me was his massive collection of comic books – I mean honestly, what kind of guy was I dating? My fears were somewhat quelled when I visited his father’s house – and there was an even bigger collection of comics. If it was hereditary, there was nothing I could do about it. I then found out it was regional, and that BD provides Angoulême her lifeblood and even international recognition.

It’s national too. In my essential dictionary of all things French, Pardon my French, Charles Timoney writes that if you ‘walk around any French bookshop – known as ‘une librarie’ – despite the fact that this might make you think of a library – and you will spot a huge range of cartoon books in quantities far greater than you would ever see in the UK.’

Further “research” on the topic revealed (ok, ok, it was just me chuckling away whilst flicking through Stephen Clarke’s Talk to the Snail) that ‘these days the most inventive French artists are much more interested in comic books, or BD (”bay-day”, an abbreviation of bande dessinée), than straight art. But these should never be called ‘comic books’. They are the neuvième art, and must be taken very seriously. And it is definitely not polite to say that the best BD artists are Belgian.’

Keeping all that in mind, I was ready to brave the festival.