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The Bike Portraits is a venture by photographer/filmmaker David Goldman, who travels the world making documentaries, and takes outing to interview attention-grabbing folks within the bike scene, wherever he may be. The result’s a single exemplary picture, a geolocation of his topic, and a transcribed interview. The audio of his interviews could be discovered on The Bike Portraits web site.
The following portrait session is with Anne-France Dautheville, the primary girl to experience a bike solo world wide. David Goldman caught up with Anne-France on September 1 2023 in Paris. David requested Anne-France a couple of questions on motorcycling: listed here are her responses.
Please introduce your self:
My identify is Anne-France Dautheville. We’re in Paris, in slightly restaurant which is known as Á la Ville d’Epinal, subsequent to the Gare de l’Est, which is the railway east station, and it’s the place the place I give all my appointments, the place I’ve my lunches, and it’s my place in Paris. I’m an outdated girl now, going to be 80, and I’ve bought an unbelievable life.
In actual fact, as a result of I rode a bike, and with this bike I rode world wide, round Australia, round South America, and so many various locations, touring on my own, which is my happiness, contemplating I drive precisely like a shit, as a result of I’m not a superb driver, I’m not a sport girl, I simply survive on a bike. I began my life as a copywriter in commercial companies, and in 1968 we bought big strikes, even a revolution in Paris, and I needed to stroll. There have been no metros, there have been no buses anymore.
What was your first introduction to bikes?
So when the peace got here again, I made a decision that I must be alone, even when there was one other revolution. I had no driving license of any kind, so I purchased myself the one factor with an engine you might afford, which was a CB50. The primary minute I sat on it, I stated I made the most important mistake in my life, and the second minute, anyone who would contact my 50cc could be useless.
And through my holidays, which I took at all times in September, I made a decision to go and see the Mediterranean Sea, which was one thing like 700 kilometers from Paris, and everyone within the company stated, “you’re loopy, you go by your self?”, sure, sure, sure, however it’s harmful, can’t you go? And I made the perfect journey of my life, got here again, and again by Alsace, which is the northeast of France, got here again to Paris, and so throughout my years in commercial, each weekend I used to leap on my bike and experience to a spot with a pleasant lodge, with good meals, good wine, and so forth. And through this month of September, I used to drive round, and after a couple of years, I started to say that I’m very, very pleased throughout 11 months of the 12 months, and I’m so completely pleased the twelfth, so once I die, I’ll have just one twelfth of my life, which can be good, and I left all the things, jumped on the bike, and commenced touring world wide, as a result of I like touring, I’m constructed for the journey, and writing, as a result of journey with out writing is simply half of the issue.
Share an ideal story or expertise that might have solely occurred due to bikes?
Which story for me, oh, it was a superb one.
Let’s go to 1975, the north of Australia, there’s a gravel street which matches to Normanton, from Georgetown to Normanton in Queensland, I’m driving a 750cc BMW, it’s my first gravel street, I didn’t know how you can drive this massive bike on the grime street, so I begin on the finish of the afternoon, so there was a metropolis in Georgetown, however no, there was no metropolis, it was only a ring for automobile races twice) a 12 months, however on the map it was like, okay, so I am going to Normanton, one thing like 150 kilometers of gravel street, and the solar goes down, down, and when the sunshine isn’t so exhausting, instantly I see an enormous brown frog leaping from my proper, so I bump my horn, and the massive brown beast stops, and it was a kangaroo, and I ended in entrance of the kangaroo, and I checked out him and stated in French, you loopy man, and he checked out me and stated, oh bike that’s speaking, and actually I discovered that day, that when the kangaroo jumps in entrance of you, if you happen to bump your horn, it stops to know the place the noise comes from, in order that was an excellent lesson in my life.
What do bikes imply or characterize to you?
What do bike represents to me?, it’s a machine, it’s simply an meeting of issues that make it roll, it doesn’t discuss, it doesn’t suppose, it’s only a machine, however that machine permits me to go world wide, to enter locations, and actually it’s the hyperlink between the character and me, I imply when I’m on a bike, I’ve all of the perfumes of the earth that grows from my nostril, I didn’t experience very noisy bikes, so I can hear generally exhausting crying birds, or issues like this, if I am going close to the wooden, I’ve that kind of freshness of the air, due to the timber, once I’m on a street, each little pebble on the bottom makes a kind of a motion within the entrance wheel, and goes by my arms, so my entire physique is alive, once I’m on a bike, if I’m in a automobile, I’m similar to a fish in a can, you realize, bike is a approach to have a everlasting dialogue, alternate with the character round you, and the very fact, all my life I’ll bear in mind the primary shot of lavender I bought once I was on my little 50cc within the south of France, I used to be on high of the mountain, and instantly the wind introduced me that vast good scent of lavender, it’s nonetheless there, I wouldn’t imagine that, so completely, if I have been on foot, as a result of I am going gradual, with the bike, I can pile heaps, heaps, numerous sensations, and that is happiness.
[Please read our previous story about Anne-France on The Vintagent: The Unstoppable Anne-France Dautheville]
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