September 2023
Hello everyone,
A strange month of August
The scorching temperatures of last week, and the spectacular drop that followed (20 degrees in 3 days!) spared us relatively well in the hills of the Puy de Dôme. But we did have to postpone a visit to some friends in the Midi, where the temperatures were hellish. We only decided to use the heat pump for air-conditioning on the last day of the heatwave, when driving down to Clermont Ferrand was like crossing Death Valley in the USA! We're off to the Mediterranean for a few days next week.
When I see how weather conditions are changing, I sometimes think that we wouldn't be able to shoot the same images today as we did for our 35 or so documentaries on the world's most beautiful islands. For example, we went to visit the Azores, which I had really enjoyed during my solo stopover on the route from Bermuda to Madeira. Francette hadn't been there before. And although the weather was quite fine along the coast of the islands, we came up against disastrous visibility conditions as soon as we tried to climb up the side of the volcanoes surrounding the multicolored lakes... which were completely invisible, even though we had filmed them in all their splendor in 1999.
We still had a great time in the Azores, in the pretty streets paved with volcanic lava - the same lava that makes up the ubiquitous Volvic stone in the Puy de Dôme! We ate some good fish in the small restaurants in the port of Ponta Delgada, on the island of Sao Miguel; we also paid a visit to the marina at Horta, on the island of Faial, famous for the paintings left on the jetty by the hundreds of sailing boats that call there on their way back from the West Indies.
On the quay, I found a drawing left by a boat called Nocciolino, the title of one of my songs... I wondered if she had anything to do with it... and the Internet enabled me to get in touch with the builder, from whom I received the following message:
In the years 1965/1970, we were lulled by the sweet illusion of "changing society ... by revolution if necessary" (LOL)
In 1966 Antoine released his ELUCUBRATIONS with lyrics that disturbed the state, the bourgeoisie, the self-righteous, my grandmother, etc., in short, all those who absolutely wanted to model us so that we would follow the same path as them.
In 1976, I left with my family to live and work in Africa. Of course, I continued to follow Antoine's discography and life (who in the meantime had "handed in his diploma to science and his masters").
( Extract from antoine. tv/souvenirs Nocciolino, one of the most beautiful songs , I think, that I've had the opportunity to sing in my life; it wasn't very successful, either in Italy or in France in the adaptation that I'd made of it, featuring an imaginary long-distance sailor close to Bernard Moitessier or yours truly; But I sometimes received messages from one guy or another who had been persuaded by this song to go to the other side of the world and experience extraordinary adventures instead of being content with half a litre of ocean in his native country. " )
The lyrics matched my state of mind perfectly, so I decided that my future boat would be called NOCCIOLINO...
1983: Back in France, I had to wait "patiently for the wind to come and blow" before launching the construction of the boat in 1989.
1995: 6,000 hours later NOCCIOLINO was launched to take me sailing towards the sun and the stars.
It's fair to say that Antoine's philosophy and way of life, as well as the song NOCCIOLINO, had a strong influence on my choices.
Today, I'm proud and happy to see that my 'elucubration' of building a boat to sail and discover (not many people around me believed in it) has materialized and endures.
Isn't that touching?
Antoine
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