La Maison forestière was created in 2011, being the work of British artist Simon Patterson helped by the architect Jean-Christophe Denise. It is dedicated to the work of the poet Wilfred Owen, and inside the house (closed at the year of our visit) are Owen's poems on the walls. The cellar, where he wrote his last letter to his mother, has been kept intact. Owen spent his last night here.
Owen was killed on 4 November 1918 while trying to cross the Sambre canal which goes through Ors: his parents learned of his death on 11 November, after armistice had been declared. An interpretation panel here says that Owen's work in general can be seen as an 'Anthem to Doomed Youth'.
Very, very weirdly, the Bureau de Tourisme Cambresis says Owen, although unknown in France, is the most researched poet in the UK after Shakespeare. Yeah, keep taking the tablets.
Wilfred Owen is buried in Ors Communal Cemetery.
On the way to Ors British Cemetery we found a herd of cows, clustering together as if for protection. None of them seemed particularly happy, and I thought of them somehow knowing what their fate will be, just like the innocent soldiers going to war knew what their fate would be. Working-class soldiers reared to be slaughtered, cattle too, what's the difference? No point in arguing that animals don't produce poetry: these creatures are poetry.
One cute, tiny Boîte à lire just at the bottom right corner of the belltower in Bergues, and in it a copy of Vernon Sulllivan's Et on tuera tous les affreux (1948). Although the edition says that this is translated from the American (English) by Boris Vian, it was of course written by Vian himself under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan. Boîtes à lire wouldn't be possible in England: people would just nick the books for resale. Two adjoining countries, but two enormous worlds apart.
Boîtes à lire:
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Boîte à Lire, Dicy, Nièvre
Boîte à lire, Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines
Boîte à lire, Sorigny, Indre-et-Loire
Boîte à Lire, Jonzac, Charente-Maritime
Boîte à lire, La Roque-d'Anthéron, Bouches-du-Rhône
Boîte à Lire, Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, Cher
Boîte à lire, Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône
Boîte à lire, East Markham, UK
Boîte à lire, La Folie Couvrechef, Caen, Calvados
Boîte à lire, Bergues, Nord
Boîte à lire, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime
Boîte à lire, Villerville, Calvados
Boîte à lire, Saint-Servan, Saint-Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine
Boîte à lire in Caen, Calvados
Boîte à Lire, Noyant d'Allier, Allier
Boîte à lire, Dampierre-en-Burly, Loiret
Boîte à lire, Illiers-Combray, Eure-et-Loir
Boîte à lire, Chartres, Eure-et-Loir
Boîte à lire, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône
The now very famous belfry or bell tower in Bergues which plays such a prominent role in director and actor Dany Boon's amazingly successful film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (2008), which was unbelievably wincingly translated into English as Welcome to the Sticks. It became the most successful French film ever made, overtaking La Grande Vadrouille (1966). Boon played the bellringer in this as Antoine Bailleul, and Boon's great-uncle had in fact been the bellringer here. As there was so little camera room, though, the scenes in the film in the 'tower' were shot in a studio in Arpajon, Essonne, using polystyrene 'bells' and with beams made of fake wood.
The real post office in Bergues wasn't used, but this building belonging to GDF (Gaz de France) was, although the interior shots shown as the post office were again taken in the studio in Arcajon.
This plaque affixed to the wall states that the building, made famous by the film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, was given to the town by Gaz de France. It was in June 2008 that the PDG of Gaz de France gave the keys to the mayor of Bergues in the presence of Dany Boon.
The spot where Kad Merad (Philippe Abrams) and Dany Boon relieved themselves in the Canal de la Colme after numerous alcoholic drinks provided by their customers (itself a homage to Jacques Tati's Jour de fête).
And finally, where a drunken Kad Merad ended up, flying onto the diners on the terrasse of the Café de la Poste (here renamed Café de la Porte), the police in hot pursuit of him.
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis:
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Dany Boon's Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, Bergues, Nord
Rémy Callot was born in 1926 in Oignie into a working-class family. At the age of fourteen his forearm was blown away by a grenade he was playing with. He became interested in ceramics, travelled around the world immersing himself in different cultures and learned to speak Chinese. In 1966 he bought a property in Carvin, with a concrete exterior surrounding the house. On retirement in the late 1980s he began work on the exterior with these mosaics. He died in 2001 and his property went to seed. The town hall bought the property in 2006, collecting as many objects as it could before necessarily destroying it.
Art brut (Outsider Art) and associated:
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Rémy Callot, Carvin (Nord)
Carine Fol (ed.): L'Art brut en question | Outsider Art in Question
Kevin Duffy, Ashton-in-Makerfield
The Art Brut of Léopold Truc, Cabrières d'Avignon (34)
Le Musée Extraordinaire de Georges Mazoyer, Ansouis (34)
Le Facteur Cheval's Palais Idéal, Hauterives (26)
The Little Chapel, Guernsey
Museum of Appalachia, Norris, Clinton, Tennessee
Ed Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)
Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)
The Outsider Art of Jean Linard, Neuvy-deux-Clochers (18)
Jean Bertholle, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jean-Pierre Schetz, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jules Damloup, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Camille Vidal, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Pascal Verbena, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
The Art of Theodore Major
Edward Gorey's Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, MA
Marcel Vinsard in Pontcharra, Isère (38)
Vincent Capt: Écrivainer : La langue morcelée de Samuel Daiber
The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)
Alphonse Gurlie, Maisonneuve (07)
Univers du poète ferrailleur, Lizio, Morbihan
Les Rochers sculptés de L'Abbé Fouré, Rothéneuf, Saint-Malo
Robert Tatin in Cossé-le-Vivien, Mayenne
René Raoul's Jardin de pierre in Pléhédel, Côtes d'Armor
La Demeure du Chaos, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône (69)
Emmanuel Arredondo in Varennes Vauzelles, Nièvre (58)
Musée de la Luna Rossa (revisited), Caen, Calvados (14)
La Fontaine de Château-Chinon, Nièvre (58)
Wilfred Owen is buried in Ors Communal Cemetery.
On the way to Ors British Cemetery we found a herd of cows, clustering together as if for protection. None of them seemed particularly happy, and I thought of them somehow knowing what their fate will be, just like the innocent soldiers going to war knew what their fate would be. Working-class soldiers reared to be slaughtered, cattle too, what's the difference? No point in arguing that animals don't produce poetry: these creatures are poetry.
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