Penn ar Bed in Breton, Finis Terrae in Latin, Finistère in French, the end of the earth, is the furthest West that France exends, in Brittany. We were there last month for too short a time (it’s always too short) and it was so good for my soul. There is the place where you are from, which will always be home, and there are the places where you feel so deeply at home that at first, it leaves you mystified, confused, in a good way. Brittany is one of those places for me. I feel at home there, even though I was born and raised 888 km East of it and now live on the other side of the Atlantic.There is the sea of course. I love, miss, crave the sea so much. But there is also the culture, the people, the old stones… I love it all.

I took two film cameras with me, my Canon AE1 Program and my Fuji Natura Classica, but left my dslr at home. I am usually too afraid of film not working out, for whatever reason, to do this, but I decided to chance it this time (confession: my partner had his dslr, which I borrowed towards the end of the trip when I ran out of film). Nothing went wrong with my film, except for the Fuji accidentally rewinding the film entirely in its canister after only three shots (I helped it a bit by pressing on the wrong button, while the camera was in my pocket).

Here are some of the shots I brought back from that place where I feel at home, all taken with my Canon on Portra 160 and 400 and there is a roll of Kodak Ultramax in there (not easy to find film in a small town in Brittany). I learned that Deirdre had been to Brittany, has anyone else? And do you have places that are not home, where you feel at home nonetheless?

Valérie