winter wandering on country roads

FROM WEST TO WEST

Côtes d’Armor

Calvados

Landes

Maine-et-Loire

From West to west is a photographic story made during winter 2022. Sitting at the wheel of my minivan, I travelled the west of France for three months. Only equipped with a single 50mm lens, my idea was to move away from the cities to capture the rural territories as they appeared to me.

Since my youngest years, I'm used to travelling in the west of France. Through a car or a train window, my eye seems to become familiar with the landscapes that draw the Atlantic coast. Holidays, work, family and friends visits, sports competitions and many others, I have traveled on this territory for almost thirty years giving this part of France a special dimension to me.

It is this last point that made me want to explore this territory deeper. From the oceanic influence to the way inhabitants live here, I wanted to understand why, from north to south, in very different regions, I had the impression to evolve on a known and familiar land.

Thanks to this feeling, I drew a geographical outline to my project and I traced a subjective border that marks out the west from the rest of France. A crescent from the end of Cotentin to the Pyrenean border, beyond administrative boundaries before hitting the road at the beginning of winter.

Finistère

Tarn

Of course, I didn't want to travel through big cities and sprawling urbanization or tourists places polish until they lose their identity. I wanted ordinary, real, not a counterfeit. I didn't want to follow the marked paths, just the desire to get lost on purpose in order to discover what covers most of the territory; the countryside. Thus, I meticulously avoided the prefectures and sub-prefectures, industrial and commercial areas, tourist places, residential areas and main roads to go further into a rural world I have too often crossed without taking the time to observe. I wanted to photograph the countryside without cheating, without aestheticizing it or making it ugly, simply capturing it in the moment.

Sarthe

Morbihan

Indre-et-loire

Hautes-Pyrénées

My photos are devoid of human beings, so that the winter countryside becomes the main character of my story.

I have also chosen winter because for me it was the most appropriate season to this quest for "reality". Winter imposes a form of honesty. You can't cheat, you can't embellish with lush vegetation, lively village festivals or bucolic settings. In winter, the reality seems augmented. The villages are often deserted, the time suspended in many places that have become anachronistic, the silence is everywhere, as terrible as it is charming. However, many times, I meet a curious or surprised look at the corner of a window, I am crossed by an unexpected ray of a sunshine which transforms the surroundings into a delicious landscape, I share three words with a shopkeeper, a passer-by or a glance with animals who observe me with an intrigued eye.

Here is the story in pictures of these three months of subjective exploration.

Ille-et-Vilaine

Landes

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