ÉTÉS FRANCAIS
Étés francais is a collection of photographs from numerous summer travels to France between 1996 and 2007. During each summer our family would rent the same small gite in the northern part of Brittany on a country road between the old bustling summer resort of Dinard and the inland hamlet where our cousins owned a two hundred year old farmhouse. Time would stand still as we ventured near and far, exploring the shores and valleys of this rugged province located four hours west of Paris.
During each summer we always had the same plan: arrive in Paris, rent a car and travel to some new part of the country before ending up at our gite in Brittany. When our time near the beach came to an end we would pack up and head back to Paris, where our favorite room at our favorite hotel in the Latin Quarter would await us. Paris would then be ours for a short spell – its parks and streets and markets and museums never ceased to amaze us with a special beauty that only this city can provide.
Then back to our home at summer's end with memories to comfort us as we waited for film to be processed and images put to paper. The magic of the darkroom replaced the excitement of travel, where people and places appeared as white and grey and black, formalizing what had been just the blink of an eye.