My job is to make people love the Gironde, and I have the surprising habit of specifying to those to whom I “tell” it that I was not born there. Because it made my emotional bond with this territory very strong: the Gironde is my favorite department.
The Gironde was my choice, and fate gave me many signs that lead me to think that I was also his.
With her, I crossed caps, stages of life.
We say of a “Gironde” person that she is welcoming. That a “Gironde” woman is ready to be a mother.
Gironde, you are so aptly named, you who welcomed me, took me under your wing, and adopted me.
I thought about it yesterday while taking the train to the Dune du Pilat.
In front of me, a group of half a dozen overexcited friends, their talk a little loud (but their eyes so sparkling that one could only forgive them for their ardor) took their seats and began to draw plans. on the comet, or rather on the dune, which they were about to "unhook". Having just graduated from high school, they were heading to the Bassin d'Arcachon to celebrate.
I then had a disturbing feeling: I too, 15 years ago, my bundle in hand and my 5 best friends by my side, I went to celebrate my Bac results by going on vacation to the Dune du Pilat. What a funny coincidence...
It was my first encounter with the Gironde. First course: my transition to adult life.
I still remember precisely that train journey that took us there: we came from Burgundy, so it was very long. We were excited to reach the "south". I still feel the sun beating down on my skin as we descend to Arcachon station. In Auxerre, we weren't used to often exceeding 35 degrees!
I remember this first stopover in Arcachon, we went directly to the Thiers jetty, with our big suitcases, and I will never forget this first view of the ocean (the Bassin Anne, the Bassin!!! But I didn't know at the time...). I had tears in my eyes: you know, when you live on the “land”, you only see the ocean one week off a year… I had a melon ice cream in my hand. . The taste is still on my tongue...
My first climb dune of Pilat also keeps a taste of eternity. I could tell you exactly what I ate before, what we said to each other at the top (or rather what we didn't say to ourselves, so much did the spectacle of the Bassin and this Aquitaine desert stun us and reduce us to silence!). I am still out of breath from the ascent of its slope without stairs, we had not been told that it made the thighs work so much…
When I was 17, I spent the holidays in Gironde which will surely remain the most beautiful of my life: my first adult holidays. We didn't share everything via our smartphone at the time, so these memories are stored away in a corner of my memory. The years are like a paraffin that preserves them. Preciously.
Photo credit: D.Remazeilles – Gironde Tourism
I continued to listen to the group of friends on the train, imagining that they would experience the same thing - envying them a little - and they started talking about the start of the school year, their projects, the competitions.
My second meeting with the Gironde came back to me.
After the teenager, she received the woman.
It was in Bordeaux, during the work of the tram, 12 years ago. I came to take a competition in a big school. I keep the memory of a vast "bazaar", of people who talk loudly, of a strong heat. When only a few days before the start of the school year I learned that Bordeaux would be my new “home”, I took fright: the furtive image that it had left me was noisy, for the little provincial that I was.
So I came to Gironde again with a big suitcase, which cracked on the train. My whole life has been spread out in the aisles. I felt lonely, I had no one to reach (apart from the lady from CROUS who was to give me the key to my city U). Unlike a few years ago, I didn't want the train to arrive.
This anguish is still there, in the pit of my stomach, but it was quickly erased by this moment when the Gironde, my Gironde, opened its arms to me, welcomed me. Adopted.
I went for a walk with my patched up suitcase (held by bicycle tensioners!), on the docks, and suddenly I arrived Place de la Bourse. Bordeaux was absolutely not the one of which I had kept a false image: there were the laughter of children, the serenity of the Garonne, the lovers who passed by holding hands and who seemed to be walking without caring where their steps took them. would lead. There was a soothing atmosphere, and in front of me, this bright place with blond stone shimmering in gold by the baking sun (but which I quickly found pleasant!!!) of the South West. The most beautiful I had ever seen.
At this precise moment, I put down my suitcase, my anxieties: the Gironde told me welcome.
This was followed by benevolent encounters, gourmet discoveries, iodine, wine, going green or escapes to the big blue. How the Gironde was… Gironde! Here, we are on vacation every day. That was the feeling of freedom and serenity, place de la Bourse…
Photo credit: A.Quimbre
One day, my studies finished, I wanted to leave; I was not one to get attached and stay in one place. But when I found myself elsewhere, I had this same hollowness in my stomach: it was a lack.
The lack of my “home”.
I could no longer imagine seeing my ocean only once a year. I was bored with the noises and songs of my Bordeaux. I was now stared at oddly, “elsewhere”, when I asked for “a chocolatine in a pocket” or when I felt “well stuffed”.
What will these young graduates do later? I wish them, just like me 15 years ago (time flies so quickly…), to experience their first adult emotions in Gironde, and wonderful holidays. Those whose last carefree moments leave a taste of melon ice cream, of sand that burns their feet, of laughter, of eternity. From Dune du Pilat.
I wish them to make, during their studies, the same beautiful encounters as me. To be adopted as I was. Far from their family, to create a new one. It doesn't matter what land will host them.
What am I doing today?
My job, my first "real" job, is to make people love the Gironde. And I have the amazing habit of specifying to those to whom I "tell" it that I was not born there. ; That the aptly named Gironde, with its generous curves, its welcoming men and women, its exceptional terroir, adopted me. It makes my speech even more sincere. I told you, it was fate.
As the young people got off the train, I picked up the papers they had left behind, and I myself left on the seat those 15 years of life that had just passed before me.
I didn't hang around. The Dune du Pilat was waiting for me.
Every time I go back, I relive all these emotions. Maybe fate has played a new trick on me to remind me of how far I've come.
To thank my Gironde, my adopted land, I leave the nostalgia of my youth in this train which has already left, and will instead focus on lhe next 15 years to come with it. I know our story is far from over. She who is so dynamic, I can't imagine leaving her anytime soon!