A trip by train (by Adrian Chicouard & Nico Malet)
For the festival “This is not Music” (as part of “Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013) , La Friche and the skateshop Bud in Marseille, have organized a series of events from 25 April to 2 June.
The month long program includes concerts, exhibitions and demos.
Invited by Momo, and the trip kindly paid for by Globe (thanks Mike!), my friend Nicolas Malet and I decided we would go.
Intensive filming, sun and good times are expected, so we checked out the place, and organized the journey.
Here we are, evening departure, it’s 12:30 am
We finish our drinks and leave my house looking forward to settling down in a wonderful sleeper cabin provided by SNCF…
10 hours, a bad back, and two changes later, we arrive in Marseille!
Quick detour by the Fnac (entertainment retail shop) to fill up on cassettes and batteries and here we are at La Friche for the opening of the Shop Momo, BUD …
Alex/Willow/Momo/Enis by Jelle Kappens
The weather is not in our favour. It’s close, and it’s raining intermittently. However, it will take more than that to dampen our spirits which are in good shape, despite our all-nighter night and our numb legs. We spend the afternoon chilling at the skatepark, some tricks are in the bag. The night comes, we find old friends, have a few beers, but we still don’t have a place to spend the night. So the four of us wander La Friche looking for a sofa to squat on.
We find refuge at a friend’s place; however Nico preferred to spend the night on the pull and ended up sleeping outside. We decided the very next day to go shoot in town except that ….the rain began to fall!
Devastated, we head to the shop in la Friche to see what it has to offer. The sun comes out …
Warm up at la Friche. Rain. Deception.
Tommy Guerrero by Louis Miossec
The evening begins and there is a great atmosphere, the music festival “This is not Music” keeps to it’s promise.
The morning, it’s the same again. Rain, rain, rain … Where is the Marseille sun?!
Marion, a friend I met on site, invites us to look around the Marseille’s old port. The weather is horrendous but we enjoyed playing tourist, the cafés and taking snapshots. The sun comes out …
The next day, the Volcom demo with Axel and Willow, a sheltered corridor of lines fitted to a curb, flats and eject … Hard!
In the evening, quick forecast check and we decide to end our trip in department 13, and take a train … Direction BARCELONA!
After Mr Jelle Keppens’ photo exhibition, thanks to everyone, Louis, Momo, Marion and all the people we met during the four days!
A good night’s sleep at Lily and Lize’s ensures a highly motivated departure around midday!
A hard day, eleven hour train journey, no space and rubbish weather, the trip to Portbou remains morally and physical testing.
Arrive at 8:30 pm, we eat an undercooked frozen pizza at an extortionate price and jump on the train to Barcelona. Throughout the journey and upon arrival, it’s raining ….
Arrive at midnight, hostel, shower, sleep …
The morning … I open one eye and … I see filtering through the curtains a delicate halo of light … The sun!
Jump out of bed and check… it’s a nice day!
After passing a few spots, we decided to go and chill at MACBA where we get to know Marcin, a Polish guy on holiday in Barca.
After some time on the flat, on the blocks, nollie flip, bad landing, sprain …
Photo not permitted. The spin is not valid!
Argh! Back at the hotel, ointment, bandage and the by end of the day we will be in chill mode.
The next day my foot is swollen, we decide to spend the day at the beach.
The evening and drinks!! We meet two guys from Quebec who we spend the following evenings with. The evenings are lulled with their delicate accent and at the end of the three days it will sound like a sweet enchanting melody!
The plan for the next two days will be much less energetic. The ankle is still painful so our days will be much the same: Chill, beach, stroll, drink. Certain parts of these evenings are still a blur …
The last day, we decided to skate anyway, a stop in Fondo and the skatepark …
Let’s go!
Back to MACBA, Mark Suciu, Jesus, Bressol, Luy Pa and the show … A nice end to the day, good atmosphere and some good spots.
Back to the hostel for our last night, our Quebecer friends don’t mess around…Leaving in the morning, they choose not to stay there the night as they want to spend their night partying.
Our train is at 9am, I ask Nico not to stay out too late as we may miss the train.
He agrees.
Finally, after a drink we set off with 10 or so people we met during the previous days, for an Absinthe bar located in a cave. The Quebecer guys are on it, they want to taste everything … Back at the hotel, it’s 6am.
I open one eye at 9am…Nico!
No time for coffee, worn out, we asks ourselves the question, will we miss our trains on the way back to Bordeaux…
One hour wait at the train station, Nico’s not doing great …
The return trip is going to be very difficult. No time to eat between stops and the trains are extremely packed. The only way to get through the 11 hour journey is to lie down in the middle of the aisle…
Arrival in Bordeaux at 9pm, finally!
Welcomed like a king by Mr Dallemagne, I refuse all offers to go out as I can only think of sleep. The next day off to Tatie for Warm-Up curb with friends, street session and chill …
Guys present are Fred Plocque, Yann Felixain, Serge de Freitas, Jeremy Vlcsek, Alex Richard, Vincent Dallemagne …
A few tricks are in the bag, Fred Plocque plays with a curb and Serge de Freitas makes the impossible, possible.
The atmosphere is good …
It’s time to go home, I thank everyone, this journey has been tiring but with many rich encounters and adventures.
We thank all those who helped us, Momo, Marion, Lize and Lili, the La Friche premises, the guy that I nicked shampoo off all week, Roukinou …
Also thank you to all the people we met along this journey, Marcin, Alison, Nick and Mike, the locals in Barca, the weird English for the show in the hostel …
And thanks to all those which without them, it would not have all been possible, Globe Travel for the trip, Woodies Skateshop for the gear and camera, Olow for allowing me to put all of this on paper.
And thank you Nico, famous companion and autistic / photographer, one of a kind!
Texte : Adrian Chicouard
