In contact with people
The oysters and prawns of Philippe Lucet

Several kilometres of gravel track from the Port of St. Vivien leads to Philippe Lucet’s restaurant “La Petite Canau”. Philippe has been
here every evening for more than 20 years, in the prawn-selling season of July and August, doing his cooking, char-grilling the
freshly-caught prawns on a shovel, and preparing the chips to go with them...
read more
Mazarin and the Palais du Costume

Joseph Fragomeni alias "Mazarin" is the founder of this unusual museum opened a few months ago in Lesparre-Medoc. Mazarin” is a former
Parisian designer, famous in the world of cinema and theatre. He has created many hundreds of costumes for actors as well-known as Jodie
Foster, Philippe Noiret...
read more
Serge Andron, lighthouse keeper at Cordouan

In the past the post of lighthouse keeper often used to pass from father to son. But in my case I was really drawn to the sea because
I was from the Vendée, from the village of St. Gilles Croix de Vie, which was a big fishing port. I had an uncle and 3 cousins who
were fishermen and when I was little I often went out on my uncle’s boat with him...
read more
Bruno Albert

Bruno Albert is our neighbour. Whenever I go to the car park, he greets me warmly. Unfortunately, our French does not take us very far, but
on Easter Sundayr we were invited to come to hear him play in the Basilica of Soulac. For this great Easter mass, the basilica was crammed
to bursting. Bruno Albert played on his wonderful organ and believers sang with fervour...
read more
Mimi Thorisson

Do you know Mimi Thorisson ? Mimi spent part of her life in China, then London, then Paris before leaving for the Medoc with her husband
and their 7 children. The Medoc is perfect in the sense that you have the best of everything on a plate, with its astonishing chateaux,
over 1500 vineyards, the ocean and wild beaches of white sand, untamed pine forests , home to wild boar, red deer and woodcock...
read more
Brice und Léo

While on a Connaisssance du Médoc outing to the Arros bunkers just north of Soulac we got to know Brice and Léo, and we saw them in action.
They were from a school group of 11 year-old girls and boys who were doing an “apprenticeship” on the Atlantic Wall with Jean-Paul Lescorce,
the bunker-archaeologist of Soulac. Seventy years after it was built, traces of this wall of fortifications can still be seen on the beaches...
read more
Claudéa Vossbeck-L'Hoëst

Claudéa Vossbeck-L’Hoëst has been living in Médoc for more than thirty-five years. She came here searching for a place to live with horses where
she could found the association «Action Centaur’ Aquitaine» specializing in giving distressed horses a new life... In some places there was just
not enough grazing-land, elsewhere too many roads, too many people, not enough space to live in peace...
read more
Arlette und Nicole

In Lesparre and in its environs, Arlette and Nicole, twin sisters of 62 years, are well-known for their participation in the activities and goings-on
of local life, preparatory work for cultural events, delivery of services and basically helping out on all fronts. One can always count on them:
indefatigable, they cannot say no, and, moreover, they take pleasure in doing what they do because they are kind people and value human relations...
read more
René Rey und das Vokalensemble Ariana-Médoc

At the start of the 1976/77 school year René Rey, then Director of the school at Moulis, founded the Moulis Chorale together with 15 amateur singers.
This would become, a little later, the Ariana-Médoc Vocal Ensemble. Only 4-5 of the members from this time still sing in the choir. During its first
10-12 years the group grew until it eventually reached an effective strength of 25-30 members from Moulis and the surrounding areas. During these
first ten years the repertoire comprised mainly various Renaissance songs, negro spirituals, miscellanies, etc...
read more
Wolfram Knöchel: Spurensuche im Médoc

At the End of May we’ve travelled to the Medoc – for the first time.
As a journalist I have covered a lot of the French regions and over many years we had various French holiday destinations, though never the south-western part.
This year was different – well, everything was different. Because the story of this journey started way earlier... Halle/S. 27.12.2014: A shoe box without a
lid. My tentative fingers find it in the dark corner of the book case whilst I was looking for… Well, what was I looking for...
read more
up