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The Motorbike Portraits is a challenge by photographer/filmmaker David Goldman, who travels the world making documentaries, and takes outing to interview attention-grabbing folks within the motorbike scene, wherever he could be. The result’s a single exemplary photograph, a geolocation of his topic, and a transcribed interview. The audio of his interviews could be discovered on The Motorbike Portraits web site.
The following portrait session is with Anne-France Dauthville, the primary lady to trip a bike solo all over the world. 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 title is Anne-France Dauthville. We’re in Paris, in a little bit 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 previous girl now, going to be 80, and I’ve obtained an unbelievable life.
In truth, as a result of I rode a bike, and with this motorbike I rode all over the world, 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 driver, I’m not a sport lady, I simply survive on a bike. I began my life as a copywriter in commercial companies, and in 1968 we obtained enormous 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 ought to be by myself, even when there was one other revolution. I had no driving license of any type, so I purchased myself the one factor with an engine you can afford, which was a CB50. The primary minute I sat on it, I stated I made the largest mistake in my life, and the second minute, anyone who would contact my 50cc can be lifeless.
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 very best journey of my life, got here again, and again by way of 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 motorbike and trip to a spot with a pleasant resort, 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 after I die, I’ll have just one twelfth of my life, which shall be good, and I left all the pieces, jumped on the motorbike, and started touring all over the world, as a result of I really like touring, I’m constructed for the journey, and writing, as a result of journey with out writing is just half of the issue.
Share an important story or expertise that would have solely occurred because of bikes?
Which story for me, oh, it was one.
Let’s go to 1975, the north of Australia, there’s a gravel highway which matches to Normanton, from Georgetown to Normanton in Queensland, I’m driving a 750cc BMW, it’s my first gravel highway, I didn’t know methods to drive this large motorbike on the filth highway, 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 automotive races twice) a 12 months, however on the map it was like, okay, so I’m going to Normanton, one thing like 150 kilometers of gravel highway, and the solar goes down, down, and when the sunshine is just not so laborious, abruptly I see an enormous brown frog leaping from my proper, so I bump my horn, and the large brown beast stops, and it was a kangaroo, and I finished 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 motorbike that’s speaking, and actually I discovered that day, that when the kangaroo jumps in entrance of you, in the event you 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 motorbike 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 all over the world, 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 trip very noisy bikes, so I can hear typically laborious crying birds, or issues like this, if I’m going close to the wooden, I’ve that form of freshness of the air, due to the timber, after I’m on a highway, each little pebble on the bottom makes a form of a motion within the entrance wheel, and goes by way of my arms, so my complete physique is alive, after I’m on a bike, if I’m in a automotive, I’m identical to a fish in a can, you realize, motorbike is a solution to have a everlasting dialogue, trade with the character round you, and the actual fact, all my life I’ll keep in mind the primary shot of lavender I obtained after I was on my little 50cc within the south of France, I used to be on prime of the mountain, and abruptly the wind introduced me that massive good scent of lavender, it’s nonetheless there, I wouldn’t consider that, so completely, if I have been on foot, as a result of I’m going sluggish, with the motorbike, I can pile tons, tons, a lot of sensations, and that is happiness.
[Please read our previous story about Anne-France on The Vintagent: The Unstoppable Anne-France Dauthville]
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