Petit traité de la marche en plaine

A walker who crosses three regions: Vattetot-sur-mer in the Pays-de-Caux region, Saint-Firmin-des-Bois in the Gâtinais region, and Carrouge in Switzerland, drawing an imaginary geographical thread between the places where we live and the place where Gustave Roud spent time on his family farm in the Pays-de-Vaux region. This film was inspired by Gustave Roud’s text, whose title we have borrowed. Travelling through landscapes, looking closely at the tiny and changing forms of nature, meeting living beings – animals and people. (Pierre Creton, Vincent Barré)

Walking in the mountains follows the simplest and most unalterable rhythm: adroit manoeuvres between the shank, the rock and the rope, five minute of “panorama”, then the descent, with the pride of a victory on your lips, over yourself and the granite, whereas walking on the plain, contrasts with such a poor and rigid mechanism and brims with nuance and great richness. It too requires effort but not one based on crude arithmetical magic (oh! hoisting oneself up to 4,317 metres!). It is the village lit up by a setting sun, almost on the horizon; each window pane gives you a sign with a glinting finger; only there will you find sleep… Your walk is an unpredictable fabric of jolts, acquiescence and deviations that are more rewarding than quests. A succession of contacts that are each imperceptibly or totally different. A strange source of knowledge,  happenstance is the master of wonders! (Gustave Roud – Petit traité de la marche en plaine, Fario Éditions)