Corfu has always piqued interest not only for its beauty but also for its position at the entrance to the Adriatic. It has known many lovers as well as many conquerors. According to author Jacques Baeyens, former French Ambassador to Greece, its first known lover was Homer himself, who compares it to Eden in his work...

The first contact of the Corfiots with people from what is now France, the Normans of Robert Guiscard, dates back to 1084, and the second, the Angevins, who inhabited the region of Ligure, spans from 1267 to 1386.

Jacques Baeyens focuses on the next two periods of French presence on the island, utilizing rich unpublished archival material: the period of the Democratic French (1797-1799) and the period of the Imperial French (1807-1814).

According to the author, Napoleon Bonaparte had initially set a strategic goal for the French to control Corfu, taking into account the geopolitical stakes of the wider area.

In an effort to win over the locals, the French emphasized in official events the relationship of the island's inhabitants with the Ancient Greeks, imposed the use of the Greek language as the language for drafting official documents, established the first printing press in Greek territory in Corfu, founded the first schools where students were taught in Greek, and created the Ionian Academy, a precursor to the Ionian Academy.

The sources used by Jacques Baeyens strengthen the hypothesis that public and private archives still hide valuable documents, which patiently await researchers to discover them to also contribute to the enrichment of historical knowledge...