During her six-month stay on the base of Port-aux-Français in the austral winter 2004, the author observed the life of the fifty-five winter residents from an ethnographic viewpoint. The base is located in the Kerguelen Archipelago, in one of the most inhospitable and remote places in the world, in the southern Indian Ocean in the Howling Fifties. The article focuses on the life of the residents, their isolation, and their remoteness, and is illustrated by observations and interviews. Presented in the form of a thematic diary, the study shows the behavioral and psychosociological evolution of the winter residents over time.