"Fleur de Lampaul Young sailor reporters" "HEADING FOR THE AMAZON" "The dreams of childhood can lead to the ends of the earth." "For one school year, aboard the Fleur de Lampaul, nine children go to the school of nature and mankind." "They explore the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs, become friends of the whales and Indians." "A journey to the end of their dreams, to discover themselves." "To share their emotions, these young sailor reporters... produced certain sequences of the film themselves." "A logbook in pictures." "Their child's perspective on the world." "WESTBOUND" "[Ile d'Yeu, September 3] (Island off Western France)" "September 3." "The long-awaited day of the great departure, just as we'd dreamed, to head for the Amazon, whales, and the Bahamas, but first we must tear ourselves away from the land, and our families who crowd the docks, when will we meet again?" "We set off across the Atlantic." "The crew consists of five adults, experienced sailors, and 9 young people aged 11, 13 or 15 years old, young people like all others, from the 4 corners of France and even England." "Heads full of dreams, eyes filled with tears." "Parting from my family, I think it's going to be... a moment where there'll be a lot of sadness, like for all the other children and even the adults." "Being apart for a year will change us." "Afterwards, we'll see each other in a different way, I think." "We set off." "For 9 months." "One school year at sea." "On board, we're all passionate about nature," "Curious to discover the way people live over there, on the other side of the ocean." "This is what impells us to leave, for the sea, for the unknown." "At age 14, when I was at school, behind a desk," "I told myself that I want to make something of my life." "I want to do something, I want to go places," "I want to see the world around me, to learn, to understand." "And this is where we see that there's... a fine ship that's leaving... for far away seas." "Our destination is French Guiana." "Madeira will be our first stop." "But on the first night, bad weather descends on us." "The spar of the topsail broke." "We are all sick." "We decide to stop for the night at the Ile de Ré." "[Ile de Ré, September 7]" "We're stuck in Saint Martin de Ré for several days." "We're itching with the desire to sail, but successive depressions make it more prudent to wait." "What awful weather!" "It's really blowing!" "How does a depression form?" "Where does it come from?" "A depression is a low pressure area, and it's basically the coming together of two air masses, a mass of hot air and cold air that create friction... quite huge and then that creates a lot of disturbance." "That's why we've been stuck here for 4 days already, and it may last for a bit because, given the forecast, it doesn't look like it'll improve." "As the days go by, "Fleur" becomes our home and our school." "Enéour, what are you doing there?" "I'm doing the first page of my diary." "This is my diary of the year that I spent on "Fleur"." "The Amazon, it still seems so far away." "I'd like to have an Indian friend to..." "speak with him, to see what life is like for an Indian of my age." "[Ile de Ré, September 10]" "The weather is better, we must prepare to sail." "Nicolas, why have you removed the sail?" "Because the topsail mast... it broke, it's split, so... so we removed it." "It's decided, tonight at high tide, we leave." "It's really blowing, isn't it?" "Anyway, we'll reduce sail, we'll lower the staysail..." "Okay, I'll let them know." "The watch crew wakes us up." "We must go out to lower the sails." "We're lashed by the wind and rain." "It's cold." "...go on, pull the sail in just a bit." "François, pay attention to the sheets." "Go on Charlotte, pull hard." "The sea doesn't make life easy." "She manhandles us mercilessly." "Fortunately, "Fleur" has seen it all before." "I became really depressed because I was seasick," "I threw up every 5 minutes or so," "I was nauseous, I couldn't eat anything." "I was depressed, I cried." "I asked myself:" "what am I doing here?" "What happened, Emilie?" "My books are all wet because I left them in the forecabin, and there was a big leak." "I'd put them in a plastic bag, but the water still got into the plastic bag." "Now, all my books are soaked, and I don't know how I'm going to work." "I'm bringing out my clothes because they really stink." "Because when we were out at sea, there was a very big depression, and in fact there were some leaks in the ship." "And all my clothes were there, it poured in very fast." "There was a fountain." "This got flooded, and now it's atrocious." "With this awful smell... and it sucks!" "There were big problems, not long ago and we all think that it's because of Paty Long Ears." "What is it, "Long Ears"?" "Long Ears, it's..." "the cousin of the hare." "How are you going to work?" "Either I'll ask my mom..." "to send me new ones, or else, I'll work with others." "We often think of all those we left behind." "Emilie perhaps misses her parents farm on the Ile d'Yeu." "The people here... don't necessarily have the same dream as me, I think, and... it's different, but it's nice here, I love it." "Nothing in the world would make me want to leave forever, because I love where I live." "They inevitably change after an expedition of this kind." "Especially at this time, at the age and period of her life where she is." "It's still a time of adolescence." "I think it will mould her personality, by the enriching contribution of their life on a ship." "Boniblue, Emilie's kitten, is also part of the trip." "[The Sheepfold]" "Before my homework, there are the animals that I look after." "In the morning, I get up early to feed them, and in the evening when I return from school." "It's a big part of my life." "So, there, it'll be a big change." "[Off the coast of Spain, September 14]" "Fleur de Lampaul is an old sailing coaster built in 1948 in Camaret." "She's classed as an historical monument." "François, there's water." "There's water, turn on the pumps." "A leak." "So far from land." "It's rising fast, eh... we neeed to pump." "We explore the hull of the Fleur to search for the leak." "It's here, under Myriam's bed that we found the leak." "We'll try to stay like this by pumping, and later in Madeira, we're going to beach her... to be able to seal it." "Well, I'm pretty sure that it's... it's because of Paty Long Ears we have all this trouble." "I found out why, it's because of this book." "They have long ears." "So, I'm going to rip up the page." "Henriette, can I tear the page?" "Wait, it's my birthday present, we can scribble on it, can't we?" "Okay, if we scribbled like this." "Because "Long Ears" bring bad luck on all ships." "What made me want to sail on "Fleur", was... first of all to live in a group like this, to share an adventure together, to experience some quite hard things together." "And then on top of that, I want to mature, to develop, to change also during this expedition." "[South of Portugal, September 16]" "Enéour, what is it?" "We've spotted fin whales, and although they're circling around us." "We're trying to approach them." "It's not easy to see... but I think there's 2 of them, there are also some dolphins with them." "I also saw them too." "8th day at sea, already." "How far away, France seems." "It's hot now." "We've caught up with Summer in our race southward." "Madeira is just behind the horizon." "Come on, we can see Madeira." "Hurry up." "Finally Madeira." "Awesome." "I didn't think it was so high, that it was so pretty." "We've waited for this for 8 days, the first port of call." "We'll be able to walk a little..." "Soak up the sun..." "Then we'll be able to eat some fresh fruit, to see... other colours, smells and people." "And then it's good to be on dry land." "A STOPOVER IN MADEIRA" "The island of Madeira is in sight." "So many discoveries already since France." "Whales, dolphins, but also the bad weather and seasickness, and then there's the leak in the Fleur de Lampaul's hull." "which obliges us to pump regularly." "We'll make use of the stopover for repairs, before continuing our voyage to Guiana." "There's still some clouds a little higher." "Look at the clouds." "[Funchal, September 18] It feels good to walk on dry land, after the 8 days of rough crossing." "Hardly alongside the quay," "Pierre and Henriette go off to explore Funchal," "Madeira's capital." "A major port in the middle of the ocean." "Madeira, a Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco, 1000 kilometres from the European coastline, was discovered in 1440 by Joao Zurco." "Today this volcanic island has become a mecca for international tourism." "But for the majority of its 300,000 inhabitants, farmers, vine growers, fishermen and craftsmen, life goes on as before, frugal and industrious, well away from the bustle of the mainland." "[Shipyard, September 27] We've found a shipyard... which agrees to repair Fleur de Lampaul." "This shipyard is very archaic, two centuries old." "The refit will be a real adventure." "We need to slide this huge trailer, 30m long, known as a cradle, under the hull of the Fleur, guided by a diver, a boat and several workmen." "On board, it's chaos." "Because of the roll, we're unable to slide the keel onto the cradle, which smashes against the hull." "The manoeuvre is dangerous." "It's only after a long day's effort, that the cradle is finally secured under the hull." "The Fleur perilously approaches the shore." "If a cable breaks we'll inevitably be thrown onto the rocks, and that'll be the end of the voyage." "Boniblue, Emilie's kitten, takes his first steps on land." "We'll live eight days in this shipyard from another time, along with the shipwrights, who still know how to repair a ship from bygone days." "The careening begins by cleaning the hull." "All the old paint is burnt off." "The oak hull is exposed." "We're replacing a plank, one of the boards which forms the hull." "The new plank must be cut exactly to size, before being securely nailed to the frames." "We learn to spin oakum, a hemp fibre." "Georges teaches us the basics of the shipwrights profession." "The oakum is forcibly pressed between each plank." "It's called caulking." "Caulking is a difficult art." "There must be neither too much nor too little oakum, without it, the water gets in." "# On the other side of the world, a vestige of the distant past," "# Fleur de Lampaul exchanges..." "To feed 14 hungry sailors, a team goes every morning to Funchal's market." "Madeira is famous for benefiting from the best climate in the world." "Tropical fruits stand alongside those of temperate regions." "We discover unknown fruits, and new flavours, a feast for the eyes and nose." "Hey, girls, what did you do today?" "Well... nothing." "Hélène and I were supposed to do lunch, but we didn't notice the time..." "We arrived at mealtime, and it's what anyone else would have done in our place." "We weren't going to stay aboard ship." "And you Pierre, what did you do..." "as we arrived back late?" "Me, I had to manage without you, I made lunch without you." "I..." "Fortunately, there were people who helped me." "Sorry, Pierre." "Sorry." "We really are!" "It's not cool." "[Garajao, October 3]" "George, do you come here often?" "[Jorge Alves, a Madeiran friend] Yes, during the year..." "At least two to three times a month, I come here... especially in Summer, I come even more." "I have good friends at the bottom." "Georges leads Nicolas under the sea." "He has some friends to introduce to him." "Actually, I should have been born with gills, because I spend a lot of time in the water." "It means a lot to me." "The setting is harsh, masses of volcanic rock, brightened up thankfully, by fish in shimmering colours." "Suddenly, a huge grouper emerges." "All of a sudden it tears the bag of fish away from Georges hands." "He devours them later, all alone in his cave." "Despite its sinister look, the grouper is a friendly fish, curious about people." "I'll show you some little shellfish because over there..." "I know plenty of little places, and small caves." "Ok?" "As the days go by, I feel I really fit in." "It gives me a feeling finally, of being more integrated, of making new friends." "It's what I've always dreamed of, because I'm always alone with my mother." "I have no brothers or sisters," "And here, I find myself with a big family, full of brothers and sisters," "It's great." "And for me, it's..." "Bye!" "[Camara de Lobos, October 5]" "We take a visit to Camara de Lobos, a small fishing port." "Around the boats can be found all generations." "We saw all these little boats." "They were really nice." "There were a lot of boats that were under construction," "Yeah." "and there was a little boy who was cleaning a small boat, and then he asked Charlie for money." "he said he was hungry and so Charlie began to talk to him." "And Charlie asked him:" ""Can you show us the port?"" "This is Henriette, she's 13." "and him, how old is he?" "Like many generations before him," "Betcha has only one thing in mind, to become a fisherman." "To school, he prefers the harbour, the boats being built on the beach, and the sea." "In Camara, people are easily satisfied." "The boats are simple wooden hulls, with a small engine and a large hold for fish." "The men sleep straight on the bottom boards." "These small fishing craft are in abundance around the world." "Their small boats make a living for 7x more sailors per tonne of fish landed, than the most powerful industrial vessels." "And they don't empty the seabed... them." "The afternoon ends in the harbour with the children of the sailors." "No need to speak the same language to play together." "Tomorrow, we'll show Betcha "Fleur"." "He'd so much like to sail with us." "The refit is complete." "Soon, Fleur will face the ocean." "The carpenters have become real friends, we are sad to leave them." "Children!" "Come on, children." "Sergio gives us a model he's built." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you very much." "This place will be demolished soon because there'll be an apartment block." "And so, "Fleur" will be the last ship to be careened here." "In addition, this is a superb ship, and they really put their heart into it, and that's really great." "[Jorge, Shipwright] I really like the children..." "They're good workers." "I love them all, they're like family..." "About four years ago," "I dreamed that I was swimming with whales and dolphins." "It was a big dream that I wanted to achieve at all costs." "I hope that it'll happen during this expedition." "Tomorrow, "Fleur" will be put back in the water, and we leave at last to cross the Atlantic." "Heading for the Amazon, in pursuit of our dreams." "CROSSING THE ATLANTIC" "[Shipyard, Madeira October 9th] Fleur de Lampaul is finally repaired." "Today is the big day of the launch." "We're putting Fleur back in the water." "We're all very stressed." "Fleur slides on the wooden planks that were greased this morning." "After a 3 week stopover, Fleur de Lampaul leaves the Madeiran land at high speed, to rejoin her natural element, the sea." "We're now leaving Madeira." "We leave for the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean." "So for us, it's the great crossing, and now we're going to hoist the sails." "Fleur de Lampaul is a "gabarre" from Lampaul, a merchant sailing ship." "She's been faithfully restored." "On board, everything is done by manual labour." "To hoist the mainsail which weighs nearly a tonne, the entire crew participate in the operation." "1-2-3... 1-2-3..." "I'm dreading the first 2 or 3 days, then I'll get my sea legs, and it'll be fine." "Here we go." "Okay, let go now." "All alone on the quay, there's Betcha, our Madeiran friend." "He would so much have liked to sail with us." "Every departure is a wrench, and this time, it's the Atlantic Ocean that we're going to cross." "Several weeks at sea before reaching French Guiana." "I'm going to have to wake the others, it's a very difficult part of the watch." "Enéour..." "Wake up, it's 5 o'clock." "I don't recommend getting up in middle of your sleep." "It's very, very annoying." "Besides, if it's to take your watch, I wouldn't recommend it." "Okay, this is called a watch jacket." "Inside we have a flashlight and a fluorescent stick, to see when you've fallen into the water." "It's very practical." "[A watch: 3 o'clock in the morning]" "Are you okay?" "Yes." "Have you seen how beautiful the stars are?" "There's millions of them tonight." "Do you want a sweet?" "Oh yeah..." "Is it good?" "Yes." "Thankfully, there's sweets, because without sweets, we'd get depressed." "We couldn't live without sweets." "Tati, where are we?" "We're at 31 degrees..." "The watch crew is also responsible for plotting the points on the map." "So, we're here." "We're now approaching the Canary Islands." "But we still have some way to go before Guiana." "[October 12, 3rd day at sea]" "Of all the cetaceans encountered while crossing the Canary Islands," "The most impressive are the whales." "The sperm whale is a whale that can grow up to 19 meters." "It has a square head with a single blowhole." "It has no dorsal fin, just a series of small bumps." "It's a whale that has teeth." "It has about sixty teeth." "So here's a sperm whale tooth." "In the old days, whalers had sperm whale teeth like this, and they put needles inside." "Even in the middle of the Atlantic, Fleur de Lampaul remains a school." "François, can you help me please." "3-3 = 0, yes?" "½ X 0 = 0 1st set x the 2nd set = 0" "Then you do like this." "I have always been a little accustomed by school, to a competitive environment, all the time, to always win, always go further..." "And now on the Fleur..." "it's like a family, we've nothing to prove, and here, we must help each other... and well, if you make a mistake, it's not serious, we aren't judged all the time." "Oh dear, they're all going to fall in." "Enéour, what's happening here, what are you trying to do?" "We're trying to catch some fish that are very strange." "Indeed..." "The marine wildlife is concentrated mainly near the coast." "Offshore, the sea is almost empty because there is little plankton." "The tropical sea sometimes resembles a desert." "The rare pelagic fish, those that live offshore, enjoy the company of ships." "They sometimes follow for several days." "Out there, I saw some dolphinfish, found only in warmer seas and offshore." "They have a large domed head and they're quite silver in colour." "I learned at home to like nature, because my parents are farmers." "So I always saw the fields and all that's related to nature, and that's why I like it a lot and I want to respect it." "It's very different, because at home you're all alone, locked in your bathroom." "And here we're all together, we can play with water, do what we want." "We don't have many showers, and it's only on special occasions that we wash in fresh water, otherwise, it's always like this, it's nice." "[October 16th: 7th day at sea]" "On the open sea, the days go by slowly." "We still sing the violins..." "Some days seem to last longer than others." "In Fleur de Lampaul, it's my life..." "I grew up." "I kept the heart of a child, to the size of the ocean." "The pussy cat Boniblue, has disappeared." "I'm looking to see, if Boniblue is down below, but apparently she's not there, but she may have fallen further." "I'm sure she's alive because..." "it's hard, you know..." "Boni can't be found." "She's probably fallen overboard." "The only important thing in this whole story is that none of you fall in." "As long as no one falls in, we won't have to live... with such horrors." "And I think it's a reminder that the sea can kill, that there's... lots of people who die at sea, there are days like this where she's pretty and calm, she's very enticing, but there's days when she's terrible, the sea." "She's dead, for certain, we have to accept that..." "She died as a sea cat." "For the moment, I'm enjoying crossing the Atlantic." "I don't find it too long because there's always plenty to do, between school work, writing, work on the boat." "The pace of the venture, doesn't allow us time to slack off and get bored." "so time passes very quickly, and here now, we have a calm sea, we have the sun and it's hot." "And the fact that we live a long time together... without being able to get off the ship," "I think that we're still learning to get to know each other better, and in fact I find that very enjoyable." "[October 20, 11th day at sea]" "I'm drinking a lot of toasts to Fleur, to her tenth anniversary." "It's been 10 years since she was bought to take some friends to sea." "I'm a hunter of vile beasts of the Amazon." "Oh, here's one." "Bang bang bang, I got it, I got it." "The Amazon occupies all our thoughts." "We sense, slowly looming larger, an immense continent behind the horizon." "You need to take hold of this and pull..." "We begin to learn our craft as sailors." "Hauling down the square sail is no longer a problem... when there isn't too much wind." "The wind... it fails us more and more often." "The calms seem endless to us." "There are still 1400 nautical miles to go until Guiana, more than 2000 kilometers." "Will we arrive one day?" "Wait, wait..." "DEAD CALM AND THE DOLDRUMS" "Fleur de Lampaul left France a month and a half ago, driven by the trade winds, we've reached the tropics, on course for the Amazon, our wake stretches out, the sun rises every day higher towards the zenith." "We become used to the always empty horizon," "In this ship which doesn't stop sailing westward, a small island of wood and canvas on the infinity of the sea." "So, I'm doing a rope whipping." "It's so that the 3 cords don't come undone, and so you have do this to hold them." "We've traveled 3000 nautical miles, about 5,000 km of ocean." "We still have a long way to go." "Manu monitors Fleur's rigging daily." "[October 22: 13th day at sea]" "In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the trade winds abandon us." "We're caught in a dead calm, to take advantage of every breath of air, we manoeuvre constantly, using all possible sail, staysails, jib, main sail, mizzen, top sails, square and studding sails, climb to conquer the masts." "Fleur de Lampaul looks like a cathedral of canvas." "I found a flying fish when I was washing the deck, and every night some of them fall on the deck." "Do you eat them?" "No, it's too small, but... it's funny how it has wings." "[October 24: 15th day at sea]" "I'm in a hurry to get there." "Not because it's too long because it's great here." "But we've still spent almost a month at sea." "So, you see, we left from there, we've done all this." "It's a big day today, because we crossed the middle of the map, the fold of the map." "I'll tell you something Charlotte, it's that... for 10 days, I haven't unfolded the map and that seemed very long to me." "And how are you doing on the ship?" "Okay." "Yes?" "Yeah, I guess." "You're not bored?" "I don't have time." "Plotting the position on the map punctuates each day of the voyage." "Nicolas, what's the clothing that you have there?" "It's a "calimbé" like the Wayana Indians wear." "They lent me one and I put it on." "Close to the equator, the heat is over 40° in the middle of the day." "For the young sailors of Fleur de Lampaul, the Atlantic Ocean becomes the biggest playground in the world." "On the other side of the ocean, Indians and whales await us." "We look forward to arriving." "When will the trade winds return?" "The trade winds are steady winds, which are created by the rotation of the earth, and the warming of the atmosphere." "They're divided into two zones." "The NE trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere, and SE trade winds in the Southern Hemisphere." "The meeting of two trade winds creates a zone of disturbance, which sailors call "the doldrums"." "And it's an intertropical zone of convergence." "Fleur is in this difficult zone precisely at this moment, and in fact, it's hard to move forward." "The currents change." "It's difficult to adjust the sails because as the winds change, we must gybe regularly, and well, we want to get there." "We're no longer moving forward." "Only the currents gain us a few miles westward." "[October 25th, 1 am]" "We frequently have to help the team on watch." "We take the watch in threes." "But 3 people are not enough for the manoeuvres." "Tonight, the wind has dropped completely." "Myriam has decided to haul down the square sail." "We never sleep more than a few hours at a time." "The fatigue begins to be felt, especially for Nicholas and Enéour, the youngest among us." "Come on, Enéour!" "Henriette, pull hard on the blocks." "A sea voyage, is very much an inner journey, because already... we're not faced with a whole society, that watches you and makes you do things without thinking." "So when we're alone or almost alone, with a large body of water around one, it allows for a more objective setting, more composed and to think about oneself." "Some days the voyage is made more difficult." "Well one night, it was 1:30 in the morning," "I knew that the next day I'd get up at 6:30 am." "I was upset, I said to myself:" "I must go to sleep, I must go to sleep, and that if I didn't go to sleep now." "I was fed up with it, all of a sudden, the fact that there wasn't my mother to tell me, it's okay Hélèn, you can take a break, and in the middle of the night, I burst into tears." "At this point, I regret, I wanted to see my mother, but there were still arms that came to hug me." "Oh dear... my big baby..." "And life goes on, to the rhythm of the waves and the wind." "And unlike at home, here we don't get very dirty." "For example, pants don't get dirty as quickly as at school." "The two richest ecosystems on the planet, the two we're going to study during this expedition, both live in an extremely poor environment, coral reefs, they also live in tropical waters that are very very poor." "Every afternoon is devoted to studies." "School or preparing for our expedition in French Guiana: the Amazon." "We think about it more and more, it's not much further now." "At school we learned to always keep smiling, to always be happy, to be well-mannered, never to say what you really think, and here on the Fleur de Lampaul, we learn to express ourselves, to say what we really think, and that helps us a lot." "[28 October, 19th day]" "Toilet break." "We should move because someone could open the door." "You should always be wary of monkeys." "While waiting to meet real ones, they play at being monkeys." "Do you think all our stress can be managed?" "No way." "There are only three of them left in the world." "We'll try to help them reproduce." "The relationship we have between us young people, the discussions we can have, the building of trust, and we have it as much with the adults, and that's what's good." "We have exactly 478 nautical miles before arriving in America." "Normally, it should take about five days, but at the speed of two knots," "I have very big doubts... and in fact we'll soon be out of diesel," "So, the engine... we'll have to do without it." "In the doldrums, the calms are sometimes cut by violent storms." "What's going on here, Enéour?" "Over there, there's a large squall that's brewing, so the sea's starting to get a bit rougher." "Are you scared?" "Well... no." "What can we do?" "If there's rain, we'll be able to take a fresh water shower." "Can we go and take a shower, Charlie?" "Yes, you can go." "Ok, Charlotte, are you coming?" "Yes." "Okay." "A real godsend, these storms, a good shower of fresh water that falls from the sky, while for the last three weeks we've washed in seawater." "It's cold." "We should arrive tomorrow evening." "It's noticeable, because the heat is more oppressive." "It's also noticeable because everyone's very excited." "The boys are unbearable." "You're hurting me." "One morning... in front of the bow, a green strip blocks all the horizon." "[November 1st, 23rd day] The shores of South America." "I was starting to have enough of it... really enough, and now, I feel great, really excited." "The Atlantic is followed by another ocean." "A sea of trees stretching to infinity, to the West, North and South..." "The Amazon." "A childhood dream becomes reality today, and sometimes, reality is even more beautiful than our dreams." "CAYENNE" "[Cayenne, November 1st]" "After a long voyage across the Atlantic, 23 days at sea," "Fleur de Lampaul arrives in sight of Cayenne, our first stop in French Guiana." "The moment, we've imagined a thousand times." "Our dream takes shape." "Watch out, there's a ship coming." "Yes, I think there's a ship leaving port." "It's here that they once disembarked the convicts, that made Cayenne so infamous." "From the île de Ré to Cayenne, we've come the same way as them." "Today, the old port is no longer visited, except by a few tapouie, these curious vessels from Brazil." "We go off to explore Cayenne, capital of one end of France like no other, an overseas department, French Guiana." "Cayenne contains the bulk of its 140,000 residents, mainly Creole." "A charming old-fashioned city, where life still moves at the unhurried pace of the tropics, despite Kourou located 50 km from here." "Like true adventurers, we buy everything we need to go into the forest, machetes, gifts for the Wayana Indians that we'll meet in a few days, and then the essential hammocks and mosquito nets." "That one." "Yes." "For colour, I think this matches." "Yes." "Okay, we'll buy some red fabric, for "calimbés", that's the clothes the Wayanas wear." "And, wait, that one, it's a good red and a little less thick than the other, that'll support you the best." "Ah, okay." "Are you okay Pierrot, can you manage?" "Sure, no problem." "I was expecting a much larger city, a bit like back home, but in fact it's quite small and also... there's something that struck me, which was the fact that, there are only Chinese and Creole shops." "We need to make a big store of supplies, because soon Fleur de Lampaul will set sail into Amazonian rivers, for three long months, far away from any shops." "There's lots and lots of fruit, it makes you want to taste them." "Here, we're looking..." "We'll take a bunch of..." "Have you seen, there's red bananas?" "Enéour?" "Yes." "Is it a custom for people to have gold teeth here?" "Well yes, given that there's a lot of gold miners in Guiana, almost everyone has gold teeth." "He's very skillful." "This is our first night in hammocks." "Our start to a life of adventure." "From where we are here, we see the forest which surrounds us." "In fact, we all really want to go there and... from time to time there's a little butterfly that comes to taunt us." "We know we can't follow it into the forest, but we know... it exists and is well ahead of us." "We didn't cross the Atlantic for nothing." "This morning, we weigh anchor to go to the port of Larivot, to fill up with water and diesel." "Situated on the Cayenne river, Larivot is Guiana's only fishing port." "It's frequented by tapouies, coming from Brazil and Venezuela, and picturesque fishing boats, sometimes used for less reputable activities." "In Larivot, is also based a small flotilla of industrial trawlers, practising shrimp fishing on the continental shelf." "The shrimp are, with wood and gold, one of the only exports of this department, that produces less than 10% of what it consumes." "Refueled for several months, we're now ready to leave for the forest." "The entire crew is very excited about this first Amazon navigation." "We go down the Cayenne River, buffeted at its mouth by the waves which rise on the shoals, making navigation difficult." "Murky water, browned by alluvium that drains into the river, hide us from invisible dangers." "For several days the trade winds have been blowing strongly." "We can sail up the channel." "It's a half-rising tide, against the current." "Since we left, we've done a good 10 miles." "We have between 1.5 and 2 metres of water under the keel, and you can't push hard against the current." "At sea, we follow the coast of Guiana up to the mouth of the river Mahury." "This river is our route of entry into the forest." "The trees of the banks form an impenetrable wall, a green curtain that our eyes are unable to penetrate." "We're looking for an opening, a pathway, by which we can slip into this forest, so dense, so mysterious." "There... an opening in the trees, it's the mouth of a river, a creek that we immediately decide to explore." "There's a bird in the tree, there." "Yes, there's several of them." "There, in the trees... there's another one, there." "We let ourselves be carried by the current, the fascination is total." "We've left with a small team, for the first time into the Amazon rainforest." "We've reached a small mangrove." "It's really beautiful." "Very impressive, this vegetation which surrounds us." "It's fascinating." "One has the impression that it's like a beating heart." "There are lots of animals, making plenty of noise." "The mangrove swamp is formed by mangroves, trees that grow in salt water." "Their roots form inextricable networks, which shelter countless fish and crustacean larvae." "Mangroves form veritable nurseries for the surrounding seabed." "Their role in the populating of the oceans is important." "This is why it's essential to protect them." "I'll explain a little bit how..." "we orientate ourselves in the forest." "We do what's called a "blaze"." "For this you uses a machete, it's their main use." "So you mark the bark of trees." "Here for example are some marked trees, and then when you make a track like the Indians, you cut small stuff like this, you make them fall to the ground perpendicular to the tree, like that, if you get lost, you turn in a circle, and you come upon it," "you know that the track is perpendicular to the tree." "Have you got it?" "Yes." "Remember that machetes are the cause of most accidents in the Amazon," "So don't go and cut off a leg." "What immediately strikes us, is the darkness that prevails under the trees." "Rain forests are the darkest and wettest habitat on the planet." "The trees soar towards the light, the highest, emerging, reaching 60 sometimes 80 meters high." "We come into a small clearing formed by a falling tree, a windfall." "Every year, windfalls renew 1% of the Guyanese forest." "They're quickly colonised by plants that can withstand the scorching sun, that we call pioneer plants." "This tree will shelter in its shade a new generation of trees, those that form the primary forest." "That way..." "I thought there'd be a lot more animals, snakes, stinging insects and things like that, in fact it's... it's great." "Can you picture it, for a minute, we're going to spend a month living here?" "It sounds weird when you say we're going to live in this... big forest because we don't really see ourselves here." "I already have trouble finding my way here, it's like when you look at the stars, it all looks the same." "In fact..." "it's full of different things, but you feel that everything's the same everywhere and it's so strange." "The rain..." "It's never far away in the Amazon, even in the dry season." "Heavy rainfall, 2000 mm of water a year... and hot and regular climate, throughout the year." "This is all that the rainforest asks to grow." "They form a green belt around the planet." "It's not until dusk that we tear ourselves away... from the fascination of this first contact." "We want to go further, deeper into the knowledge of this forest, the most beautiful in the world and its inhabitants." "Tomorrow, the crew will split into two groups." "One will work with scientists, while the other will go live for a month with the Wayana Indians." "THE MEETING WITH THE INDIANS" "Today we realise our biggest dream." "Fleur de Lampaul goes back up the Mahuri river in French Guiana." "Having crossed the Atlantic, we sail in the Amazon like the discoverers of the past, but with more peaceful intentions." "Our objective is to study the rainforest and the people who inhabit it." "To learn more about it, we decide to separate into two groups:" "8 of us will explore the forest for a month led by scientists." "Nicolas, Hélène, Emilie and Enéour, accompanied by Tatiana and Charlie... fly off to the land of the Wayana Indians, deep in Guiana." "At school, we study geography in books, but today the planet unfolds beneath our feet its green cloak." "We're flying over the largest forest in the world, it covers 6,000,000 square km." "The Amazon covers 95% of French Guiana." "The figures, like the sight that awaits us, are staggering." "In the Amazon, are found the major part of plant and animal species on the planet, most of which are still unknown to us." "A treasure trove of biodiversity." "Under its immense trees, living since the dawn of time, the Native Americans, who know the secrets of the forest." "The Wayanas live in the South of Guiana, in Brazil and in Surinam." "At Maripasoula, the last village on the river Maroni, the Indians come to pick us up in a dugout canoe." "Mimisiku and his companions take us for month to share their life." "Very few white children have had this chance, the Indian country that we're entering is a prohibited area." "To get there, you need a prefectural authorization, in order to protect the Wayanas from tourism." "Despite the beauty of the landscape, the more we advance, the more we're afraid." "How will we be greeted in the village?" "We're apprehensive of this first meeting with the Indian world, so different from ours." "At the bend of the rapids, on an island," "Antecume-Pata is revealed to us." "Wow, it's great." "Charlie has warned us, the Indians are reserved and shy, certainly not as much as us." "So look..." "This is Hélène and Enéour." "Who?" "Enéour, Enéour." "Enéour...?" "This is Charlie's fifth trip to the Wayanas." "He's brought Mimisiku and his friends, some photos taken at Antecume-Pata... during the previous expedition of Fleur de Lampaul." "The Wayanas favourite drink is cachiri." "As a sign of welcome, Panapassi offers us big ladies." "Cachiri is a kind of beer fermented from manioc, brewed in huge pots." "Its sour taste is variously appreciated by the crew of Fleur de Lampaul." "What's he called, your dog?" "Chocolate." "Chocolate?" "And you, what's your name?" "Biomane." "Biomane." "As so often during the expeditions of Fleur de Lampaul," "It's through play that the ice is broken between us and the young Indians." "I've made a friend, this is Hetipo." "We're always going swimming together, he showed us around the village and he's very nice." "We soon understand that the reserve of the Indians... doesn't signify indifference or hostility, quite the contrary." "We get to know Couyamane, one of the village elders." "Panapassi, we learn from Hetipo, is the village shaman, the one who heals the sick." "Couyamane patiently makes a "Holoc", a large feather headdress, used in the initiation rite of Wayana adolescents, the "Marake."" "It was a white palassissi who created Antecume-Pata." "Andre Cognat has been adopted by the Wayana." "In 1967, with the help of some Wayana who lived nearby, I created Antecume-Pata." "So, I was the first and only inhabitant for some time, and then little by little, first there was a group of Wayanas who came from Jarime." "Mimisiku's clan, and it's now 3-5 years ago, since I suggested they come here, and they finally agreed, it gave me great pleasure." "So the village started to get a bit bigger, and finally my adoptive family arrived." "Then gradually there were other people who for reasons of affinity, or because they wanted to be here, have settled in." "We meet Aikou, a young man whose family comes from Brazil." "It seems that in Brazil and Venezuela, there are Indians who are killed by gold miners." "Many conflicts..." "Have you heard about it?" "My family came to Guiana because of the Brazilians." "There were threats." "First my grandfather was murdered there." "Then my parents moved to a small island." "Some Brazilians came to their village." "They were fine before, everything was fine." "As they were jealous of my family, there was a small war." "That's why my family came to Guiana." "What's the point of killing each other?" "This afternoon, Hetipo and his friends have invited us to a "Nivre"" "a fishing trip on the river." "Wayana teenagers surprise us, with their haircuts and western clothes, they don't really resemble the image we had of the Indians, but on the river, we discover their extraordinary ease." "The most difficult things, they do them as if playing, in good humour." "Enéour?" "Yes." "What do we do at the waterfalls?" "Well, it's quite dangerous because we have to pull the canoe, given that there are some very strong rapids." "it's not easy, especially for us... small palaississi, who know nothing about canoes, it's not easy." "The "Nivre" is a very special type of fishing done in the dry season." "Hetipo and Mataliuwa have gathered large lianas from the forest they call Ali Ali." "Their sap contains a toxin that intoxicates the fish." "This substance is now being used as a drug in cardiac surgery." "Many plants used by native Americans are used to manufacture medicines." "Yet less than 1% of Amazonian plants... have been studied to determine their chemical properties." "The forest is a treasure trove of potential drugs." "The fish, of course, could do without the ali-ali." "Intoxicated by the sap, they rise to the surface where it's easy to spear them." "Easy... for the Indians." "I've got one." "It's called a rock fish." "It's very nice our "rock."" "Nicolas and Enéour, do you find it easy, when you're a young white boy, to become an Indian?" "For us it hasn't been easy." "We're like Mickey's next to them." "Yes." "And the fact you feel a bit like a Mickey, do you have hang ups compared to them?" "Ah yes, a little, a lot even." "Why do you scratch all the time?" "Because we're bitten by ants and mosquitoes." "And that's a hard thing, the animals at the beginning?" "Ah yes, it's very very." "very, very annoying." "The Wayana children invite us into their school." "This morning, the children of Fleur de Lampaul, have come to the school and we're going to ask them lots of questions." "What's the name of the ship?" "The ship is called Fleur de Lampaul." "How does it move forward?" "The boat moves due to the sails and also when there's no wind at all, or we want to go a little faster, we switch on the engine." "What are you going to do here?" "We're going to make several films about you, about Indian life, about the forest, lots of things." "And isn't that what we're doing?" "Of course." "The first days in Antecume-Pata, and already so many discoveries, so many questions." "To better understand this rapidly changing world, we leave tomorrow on the Litani river with Mimisiku and Hetipo, to lead in the forest, the traditional life of the Indians." "Subtitles by Oliver Sanderson"