Book. Many readers can chicly quote the first sentence of salammbô : “It was in Megara, a suburb of Carthage, in the gardens of Hamilcar…” In A life on the waterhis investigation into the world of boatmen, Jean-Claude Raspiengeas reminds us that, on September 15, 1840, on the ship The City of Montereaumoored at the Quai Saint-Bernard, in Paris, Frédéric Moreau sees, for the first time, Madame Arnoux, “dreamy passenger in a wide straw hat, whose long shawl slipped towards the water”. For freshwater sailors, it is a fanfare entry into the deep end of literature, right from the first page of sentimental education.
Flaubert is not, far from it, the only known writer to describe and honor the world of barkers, gabariers, boatmen, sailors, and especially their barges, squat, massive or slender, which transport goods and men. After him, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, in journey to the Edge of the Nightbut also the Belgian writer Georges Simenon, who embarked on the Ginette, a modest lifeboat, at the age of 25. The wish of the father of the famous Maigret was then to leave for several months to discover an unknown France, by taking waterways, “tracing the body of the country in its veins and arteries” : Epernay, Chaumont, Langres, Chalon-sur-Saône, Lyon, Marseille, Sète, then return to Paris. The report, titled The Adventure between two banksfirst appeared in the magazine Seenin 1931.
Praise of slowness
After investigating the invisible life of road (The Iconoclast, 2020), the great reporter of The cross wanted to dive into the world of sailors, another wandering, silent and little-known population. The author has acquired a true science of water: he knows the vocabulary – from the famous Freycinet barge to the Dukes of Alba which guarantee mooring – but also the codes and itineraries of these eternal travellers. The France of rivers, canals, locks and bridges parades in a literary, historical, economic and tourist crossing. A France that could be reborn today, at a time when de-globalization is resurfacing.
The peak in barge traffic on the French river network dates back to 1973, less than fifty years ago! At the time, the traffic couldn’t keep up. Thus, for example, on the Canal des Deux-Mers, which brings together the famous Canal du Midi and that of the Garonne, 600,000 tonnes of goods passed through. In 2021, on board the Milanko, a bulk carrier commanded by Jean-Baptiste Castelain, 39, whose job is to navigate the Rhine, Raspiengeas describes the delivery of a cargo from Kehl, Germany, to Strasbourg. In ten years, it transported 2,200,000 tons of corn. In praise of slowness, this means of transport is at the same time very ecological – “but we are so discreet that no one notices us”observes the captain.
You have 41.64% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.