<P> In July 1858, Verne and Aristide Hignard seized an opportunity offered by Hignard's brother: a sea voyage, at no charge, from Bordeaux to Liverpool and Scotland . The journey, Verne's first trip outside France, deeply impressed him, and upon his return to Paris he fictionalized his recollections to form the backbone of a semi-autobiographical novel, Backwards to Britain (written in the autumn and winter of 1859--1860 and not published until 1989). A second complementary voyage in 1861 took Hignard and Verne to Stockholm, from where they traveled to Christiania and through Telemark . Verne left Hignard in Denmark to return in haste to Paris, but missed the birth on 3 August 1861 of his only biological son, Michel . </P> <P> Meanwhile, Verne continued work on the idea of a Roman de la Science, which he developed in a rough draft inspired, according to his recollections, by his "love for maps and the great explorers of the world". It took shape as a story of travel across Africa and would eventually become his first published novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon . </P> <P> In 1862, through their mutual acquaintance Alfred de Bréhat, Verne came into contact with the publisher Pierre - Jules Hetzel, and submitted to him the manuscript of his developing novel, then called Voyage en Ballon . Hetzel, already the publisher of Balzac, George Sand, Victor Hugo, and other well - known authors, had long been planning to launch a high - quality family magazine in which entertaining fiction would combine with scientific education . He saw Verne, with his demonstrated inclination toward scrupulously researched adventure stories, as an ideal contributor for such a magazine, and accepted the novel, giving Verne suggestions for improvement . Verne made the proposed revisions within two weeks and returned to Hetzel with the final draft, now titled Five Weeks in a Balloon . It was published by Hetzel on 31 January 1863 . </P> <P> To secure his services for the planned magazine, to be called the Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation (Magazine of Education and Recreation), Hetzel also drew up a long - term contract in which Verne would give him three volumes of text per year, each of which Hetzel would buy outright for a flat fee . Verne, finding both a steady salary and a sure outlet for writing at last, accepted immediately . For the rest of his lifetime, most of his novels would be serialized in Hetzel's Magasin before their appearance in book form, beginning with his second novel for Hetzel, The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1864--65). </P>

When did jules verne wrote his first book