24 July – blustery, dark sepia skies and the threat of rain -sat in Intermarche car park and filmed very dramatic skies wafting past Napoleon’s column – it is so tall that it was a good navigational landmark. Drove up the coast to Wimereaux with a road systems that felt like a mini-golf course – coloured tarmac and curvey entrances to roundabouts. Wimereaux stretches along the coast and into low lying sand dunes, which I wondered around filming bits of coast and the shadows of passers by. Very windy and the sea extremely rough. In the distance I caught sight of a fort on the seafront – so drove round the headland to Fort Mahon – strangly squatting offshore looking rather incongruous in a seaside setting. Then on to Ambleteuse which is choc-a-bloc with squat stone/wood semi gothic houses – not unlike the house in Psycho – all very quiet apart from the crashing of waves over the promenade and the screeching of happy children running in and out of the spray.
Beginning to feel like I’m making a travelogue rather than an artwork -need to separate the scenic and appealing from the nitty gritty of the brief….location residence migration…..
