Fresh sea air.

Sous-Bois Au Bord De L’Ocean
Woods At The Border Of The Ocean

Une complexe odeur d’amande et de résine
A complex smell of almond and resin.

Naít des ajoncs en fleurs, des bruyères, des pins,
Born from flowering gorse, heather, pines,

Se dilate au soleil, flotte, se dissémine,
Expands in the sun, floats, spreads,

Suave encens, dans la fraîcheur de l’air marin.
Sweet incense, in the freshness of the sea air.

French poet, Cécile Périn (1877–1959).

Bordered by the English Channel, Bay of Biscay and the Iroise Sea, Brittany is the largest French peninsula. It is also where photographer Morgane Cazaubon hails from. Given the region encapsulates a third of the entire French coastline (2,860 km), it’s unsurprising that the sea has seeped deep into the psyche of many Bretons.

When speaking about her beloved home and this beautiful series of photographs featuring Anna Griffiths (@__anna.rose__), Morgane shared some very moving poetry and music dedicated to the Bretons’ connection to the ocean.

The accompanying excerpt of Cécile’s poem on Brittany “really describes what you feel and smell just by the sea there,” offers Morgane, “and it is slightly similar [when walking] on that beach in Phillip Island [too]”.

While the pines have been replaced by acacia and banksia, the salt-tinged air remains similarly fresh and intoxicating.

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