Philippe Ariès (1914-1984), the author of the classic history of the French people (1948), the child and family life under the former regime (1960 and 1973) and man ahead of death (1977) is an emblematic figure of New History alongside G. Duby, J. Le Goff, E. Le Roy Ladurie or M. Vovelle. But for a long time this director of studies at the EHESS was a solitary historian, a French-timer historian, who built his work outside the university, a ‘Sunday historian’. Philippe Ariès, trained at the French Action School in the 1930s, married most of the fighting of the Charles Maurras movement to Pierre Boutang, and then moved away from activism while remaining faithful to his traditional culture. The biography of this pioneer in the history of mentalities makes it possible to understand the national and international renown of Philippe Ariès’s work in environments as diverse as sociology, psychology, education or medicine. Finally, she gave an explanation of the long crossing of the desert known by Philippe Ariès, which was revolving so much as Michel Foucault.