The name of Pierre Loti is too exclusively associated with the literary exoticism. He has been caricaturated as a perpetual nomad and it was also believed that his feminine ideal came down to his sensual heroins. Among all the attractive, cultured and well born ladies Pierre Loti met along his life, there was the Duchess Alice de Richelieu, who became Princess of Monaco (1857-1925). From 1884 to the French academician's death in 1923, Princess Alice and Pierre Loti had a very strong relationship, though not very well known. "Soul mates, we are", said Loti in 1894. To what she answered : "You are a kind of worship for me"... (full text in French)