European markets, Stevenson, feminist struggles… Weekend replays

THE MORNING LIST

On the program this week, a walk in the heart of the most famous markets in Europe or on the Cévennes trails with Robert Louis Stevenson, the harsh daily life of a fisherman in Boulogne-sur-Mer or the constantly renewed fight of feminists for establish hard-won acquired rights.

Wanderings in the belly of European markets

Stefano Tealdi’s documentary series The Belly of… originally had ten episodes, broadcast on Arte in July 2015. In February 2021 were added “five unique culinary wanderings in famous markets of the old continent”, constituting the set that is rebroadcast this summer by the Franco-German channel.

These episodes of forty-three minutes decline an invariable principle: starting from a hall, a market – covered or uncovered – urban, are offered digressions about a product, a technique, a tradition, even a local gastronomic curiosity with a more or less appealing typicality.

But it’s a nice trip to places with sometimes splendid architecture, like that of the Art Nouveau market in Valencia, Spain. However, the architectural dimension takes second place, in order to favor the human and the local culinary and agricultural practices, generally driven by the concern for sustainable development. Renaud Machart

The Belly of…, documentary series by Stefano Tealdi (German, 2015-2020, 15 × 43 min). Available on Arte.tv.

In the footsteps of Stevenson and Modestine, in the Cévennes

In 1878, a Scotsman, writer and Protestant, decided to cross the Cévennes to reconnect both with nature and with his religious convictions. The trip will last twelve days. Nearly a century and a half later, director Sam Caro is following in his footsteps on what has become the GR70. From Monastier-sur-Gazeille, in the region of Puy-en-Velay, he criss-crosses the Lozère and the Gard to rub shoulders, like the author, with the inhabitants and discuss their passions. Between a photographer met on Mount Lozère and an illustrator; meeting Cistercian monks from Gévaudan and a castle guardian in Bouzols in Haute-Loire, the expedition was a small success. Crossing the Montvert bridge marks a tipping point for Stevenson, who then enters Camisard land, a hotbed of Protestant resistance fighters. The director questions and studies the houses, the Protestant temples, which excel in the art of counting and neutrality.

Without forgetting an essential character, Modestine, the rebellious donkey and traveling companion of Stevenson. Loaded with 100 kg of food, it caused him many setbacks according to the writer, who justified his character by his sex! Arrived at his destination, in Florac on October 3, 1878, he nevertheless sold the unruly animal reluctantly, before continuing his journey by horse-drawn carriage to Aleppo. “For twelve days we had been inseparable companions; we had […] made our merry way together with our six legs over more than one rocky road and more than one marshy track”can we read in Travel with a donkey in the Cévenneswhich Stevenson publishes in 1879. Sixtine Bonacorsi

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