Visit to the Karen Blixen Museum, birthplace of Out of Africa

In 1937, after spending several years in Africa, Danish author Karen Blixen published a book entitled "Out of Africa". The book, which quickly became a bestseller, tells the story of her life in Kenya on a coffee plantation. The book was adapted for the screen under the same name in 1985 by director Sydney Pollack. A life story played by the talented Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The film was also a box office hit. Karen Blixen's now legendary home opened its doors a few kilometres from Kenya's sprawling capital, Nairobi.

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills", an emblematic phrase at the start of the film. Built in 1917, this farm stands a stone's throw from Nairobi and today houses a museum on the life of its legendary owner, Karen Blixen. Karen Blixen was born in 1885 in Denmark and is known as one of the great writers of the 20th century. After a peaceful childhood in Scandinavia, she decided to move to Kenya to follow her fiancé, Baron Blixen-Finecke.

Their wedding took place in 1914 in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombassa. The couple went into the coffee business, buying a farm in the Great Lakes region. But in 1917, they moved closer to the capital and invested in an even bigger coffee farm. The famous Out of Africa farm. The construction of this coffee farm caused a stir because Nairobi is too high to grow coffee there. But that didn't stop the Blixens.

Unfortunately, Karen is often left to run the farm alone. Her husband, known for his flightiness, often deserted her. Her husband filed for divorce in 1920, and Karen became sole manager of the farm in 1921. In her writings, we can see the difficulties that a single woman could face in her life at that time. This was Africa in the 1920s, in an ultra-patriarchal system that left little room for women's emancipation.

Her novel also includes her passionate love affair with a big-game hunter, Denys Finch Hatton. An idolised romance in 20th-century literature, perfectly adapted for the screen in Out of Africa. But her love was killed in a plane crash in 1931, while her coffee plantations were being devastated by drought, unsuitable soil and the collapse of the international economy.

Karen Blixen decided to sell her farm in August 1931. She returned to Denmark and never went back to Africa. She then decided to tell her story and gave life to her novel "The African Farm", which she signed with her pseudonym "Isak Dinesen". A famous writer, she went on to publish other books such as "Babette's Feast". Karen died at the age of 77 in her home town of Rungsted, Denmark, ravaged by various illnesses.

At the foot of the Ngong Hills on the outskirts of Nairobi, the Blixene farm is known as Mbogani. It was designed and built by Swedish engineer Åke Sjögren in 1912 and bought by the couple in 1917. It is a striking example of the "colonial bungalow" style. After Karen's departure, the house had a number of owners. In 1964, the Danish government decided to buy the house, but the State offered the house to the new Kenyan government in recognition of their independence from the British Empire, which they gained in December 1963.

The house was originally used as the College of Nutrition until the film Out of Africa was released in 1985. The film, which starred Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen and quickly gained a cult following, prompted the National Museums of Kenya to transform Karen's former home into a museum in memory of her life.

Quite far from Nairobi, you'll find very few hotels but lots of B&Bs and guest houses.

The museum opened its doors to the public in 1986, less than a year after the film was released. Funnily enough, the house was not used at all as a set for the film Out of Africa. Today, a visit to the Blixen farm is an opportunity to discover Kenya in the 1920s.

To immerse yourself in the colonial history of this tumultuous past. You can take a guided tour of the farm and immerse yourself in Kenya's coffee history. You'll also be caught up in the nostalgia of the romance between Karen and Finch Hatton, the true love of her life. The atmosphere here, far removed from the hustle and bustle of bustling Nairobi, offers a glimpse of a peaceful life at the foot of the Ngong Hills.