The river Loire is not a long quiet river, and our drone knows something about it, it has passed the ten tests!
From September 2016 to June 2017, we travelled the entire length of the Loire, from the source to the mouth, to tell the story of a grain of sand.
The Loire Houses (Maisons de Loire) :
The film has been screened since the summer of 2018 at the "Maison de Loire" du Cher in Belleville-sur-Loire.
The vocation of the Loire Houses (there are 5 of them) is to help people discover the Loire and its cultural heritage, nature and landscapes. They are places of welcome and entertainment to promote the Loire environment. They belong to the association network "Fédération des Maisons de Loire".
In Belleville-sur-Loire, an exhibition allows visitors to understand the mechanism of the Loire floods and to alert them to the dangers.
The film:
The film is a poetic vision of the Loire. The subjects discussed are not dealt with in depth, it is the exhibition that will provide the visitor with more precise answers. The film aims to magnify the Loire and should, in accordance with the objectives of the Loire Houses, allow everyone to experience emotions and stimulate reflection. It can be viewed at the beginning and end of the exhibition (to make you want to know more or to keep in mind the poetic vision that will accompany the visitor beyond the exhibition).
Snow, ice, then water, more water, always water, and sand, a lot of sand....
We searched for beavers, but to no avail.
Fortunately, the beavers were not the subject, our subject could not escape us, it was a grain of sand...
It all starts at the source:
Test N°1: after the coldest night of the year (-24°C), even after a good breakfast at the Café de la Source de la Loire, you need to warm up and wait patiently for the temperature to rise before you can finally leave the asphalt!
Test N°2 : avoid snowballs
Test N°3 : venturing onto the snow-covered ice
Test N°4 : passing the dams
Test N°5 : finding your way back into the morning mist
Test N°6 : keep your cool in the face of sea snakes
Test N°7 : always keep your head above water
Test N°8 : pass under the bridges (without forgetting Test N°7)
Test N°9 : do not run aground on a sandbank
Test N°10 : make a successful first deck-landing
After all these efforts, rest at last:
Turn off the engines, listen to the sounds of nature,
the lapping of the water and the silence of the twilight
"The journey of a grain of sand" (password to view this video is 'loire')
Director and ground camera Xavier Courteix
Images by drone Vincent Durouchoux
Sound recording and original music Olivier Hazemann