What does France look like off the beaten track, along this “diagonal of the void”, a vague term, which we talk about without really knowing the contours? Curious to find out, and motivated by the fulfillment of an old dream, Stéphane Dugast gets on his bike, one fine morning in July 2020, for a journey between Dunkirk and Hendaye, on “the paths and roads of la France buissonnière“.
From this adventure he drew a book, The breakaway – France diagonally and by bike, published at the end of March by Editions du Trésor. Unusual encounters, discoveries of unsuspected places, the galleys of the cyclist told with humor and self-mockery, the book, rich in tasty anecdotes, traces the route between nature, history and culture.
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Re-enchanted France
Yellow jersey on the back, “Reenchanted France” as a logo, perched on Raymond, a bike weighed down by 30 kilos of panniers (which he will lighten along the way), Stéphane Dugast, well into his forties, admits that he looked more like the Michelin bibendum or Bozo the clown than to a cyclist. Never mind, despite condescending looks or even the total ignorance of some peers in racing bikes (it’s not okay to wear a yellow jersey!), the author stays the course and most often a “perky mood“, too happy “to take a deep breath of life in the great outdoors“.
Because this outfit has an advantage: it does not go unnoticed. And that’s good for those who aspire to “start the dialogue” And “to make people smile again after months of confinement”. We follow the brave cyclist over his 2200 kilometers by the strength of the calves, between suffocating climbs on asphalt roads where speeders circulate, and relaxing paths in the middle of the forest, overgrown paths from which it is difficult to extricate yourself or bike – well-designed roads. Adventure Reserve’sthere are lots of surprises and disappointments, joys and frustrations“and that’s what makes it salt.
The art of telling stories
Each step is a pretext for new discoveries of these little corners of France. You can visit magnificent abbeys, a haunted castle and disconcerting museums; we cross superb stone villages, old bridges and rivers whose poetic names touch the author. But there are also deserted and depressing places and outlying shopping areas that are a challenge. We walk in the footsteps of past wars and the effects of globalization. We come across illustrious characters, Jean Bart, Marguerite Yourcenar, Joan of Arc or Poulidor and also a crowd of anonymous people, silent bar pillars, warm hosts for an evening, finicky museum guard, committed farmer, campers or tourists with whom to share a moment…”The encounters nourish my vision of the diagonal of the void and allow me to weave a patchwork story of this France sometimes disenchanted” he wrote. And these snapshots are always inspiring.
Because Stéphane Dugast has easy contact and the art of telling stories, even if being a journalist and a Parisian does not always ensure a welcome with open arms and the effects of the Covid have overcome the improvised nights with locals. long postpone for Blue collarthe journal of the Navy and the Sea, he is today a prolific author of documentaries, books and articles, for various media and for the journal Boarding, of which he is one of the founders, mainly around adventure and the poles. Usually, it’s about other people that he writes. “There, for the first time, I put myself on the stage, I put myself with confidences, in particular on my mother, who died at the age that I had during the trip. I wanted to take the reader with me, on my luggage rack. ” The sometimes very intense efforts and the pain in the buttocks less, it is therefore with an infectious pleasure that we let ourselves be carried away.
Tiny little pleasures
“So this France, how is it? Enchanted, to be re-enchanted or to be enchanted?“Asked him Cathy, Nicole and Michel, crossed in Aiguillon. “All three at once” replies today Stéphane Dugast. “By bike you can see a lot about the state of small towns. We are in a country where there are wonderful things but also despairing sides. We feel a thousand-year-old country with old stones, history, sometimes suffering.”
As for the adventure, it left him with wonderful memories. “JI have a sweet tooth for Hauts-de-France”, he admits. But he there are superb corners in the Limousin too. I don’t understand how people pile up on beaches when there is everything in much less visited regions. And then I also discovered tiny little pleasures, like drinking a syrup of violets or orgeat at a café terrace.”
The breakaway – France diagonally and by bike, Treasury Editions. Released March 23, 2023 (€19)