August 4th 2023 was my D-Day, the first time I managed to travel through Normandie properly after having lived in France for over two years. Before that day I only managed to spend an adventurous weekend back in 2012 with a good friend, sleeping at the beach, being almost attacked by a random gang of youngster and being fooled in the early next morning from local bakers that decided to throw breadcrumbs at us, since after the meeting with the gang, we moved to a public bench for the rest of the night ('Le banques publiques').
Normandie is wild. The weather is very Atlantic, the clouds are heavy, dark but fast, you would expect airplanes coming to change the course of history anytime, while fishermen are cursing their exhaustion bending down to take their fishnets back from the ocean and the ocean moving back and forth like a beast hard to catch, clashing pitiless on the rocks, showing you that water is stronger than rock and it can shape it anytime it wants.
Driving around with Andrea and Christine reminded me on how much I love road-tripping and the sense of vulnerability I get from that. It makes me somehow feel more human and it detaches me from the usual routine which I believe is bad for the soul and makes days run too fast. We experienced the most classic normandic local mix (galette & cidre) joining a local cider folk fest with swing musicians while the sky was pouring rain. We woke up the morning after in the forest with an headache that was hard to get rid of while our journey (or mine atleast) was coming to an end in St. Malo
Before of that in a random order we had pre-dinner drinks and seafood in the main square of Honfleur, were hosted by Matias and his father at Pont Audemer drinking local punch, having dinner and playing music with them and zig-zagging around Joburg in the following days.
Normandie is also very cinematic, made me think about Jean Paul Belmondo, especially about A Monkey in the Winter and Pierrot le Fou for the majestic use of colour, focusing mostly on blue, white and red (french national flag?) that Godard made in that movie despite of being filmed in the south of France.
**Yann Tiersen//Charles Trenet//Swing Gitane//The Chordettes, Mr.Sandman//Beirut, Cherbourg**