Some want to be firefighters, other police officers. He wanted to be a musher. The kid from the North, Thibaut Braquard, went after his dream to become one of the best in his discipline. Outdoor portrait to discover in “L’Appel du NØrd”.
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Thibaut was 10 years old when he discovered “The Call of the Forest” by Jack London. Something to feed the imagination of a kid from the North: “As a child, I devoured all the books on the Far North from Paul-Emile Victor to Nicolas Vanier… It seemed inaccessible to me. It was a consuming passion that I lived by proxy and it suited me well.“A serious bicycle accident, later, makes him aware of the fragility of life. The teenager integrates this urgency to live, to go to the end of things, to the end of his dream. And his dream is d to be a musher The adventure pegged to the body and the heart.
At the age of 40, Thibaut Branquart still lives in the north of France. He is a musher. A city muscher that you can meet while training with your dogs, in the streets of your city, along the canal, on the slag heaps and in the surrounding forests. Sometimes accompanied by his family whose support is unwavering. So much so that, when Thibaut left for three months in Norway to participate in the Finnemarkslopet, his son Paul-Emile told him “I don’t like when you go, but you shouldn’t hesitate to indulge your passions. So I understand …“
From cobbled streets to large polar spaces
With 1,200 km to cover, the Finnemarkslopet is the longest sled dog race in Europe. The most northerly too. About a hundred mushers, mostly Scandinavians, lined up at the start and among them, the French Thibaut Branquard. Years that he trains for … The man and his 8 dogs, alone in the great white silence, in extreme conditions linked to loneliness and cold: “I had discovered this incredible feeling of freedom with Nicolas Vanier. I went with him as a photographer in his Siberian Odyssey. A chance, an initiation, a staggering experience …“
Thibaut Branquard in Norway.
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© David Guerson
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In 2021, Thibaut Branquart plans to participate in several races in Norway. He will also be at the start of the Great Odyssey Savoie Mont Blanc. Beyond the sporting feat, “L’Appel du NØrd” is a film about passion, about the need to put your energy at the service of your dreams. A risk taking that is well worth a life. “It’s not who we are that keeps us from achieving our dreams, it’s who we believe we are“, said Paul-Emile Victor.
“L’Appel du NØrd”, a film by Thibaut Branquart and David Guersan, (co-production Wild Horses, STM Weo, Pictanovo and France 3 Hauts-de-France), broadcast on Monday January 11 at 11pm on France 3 Auvergne-Rhône- Alpes and available in replay until February 11, 2021.
For further
You can read or reread “The call of the forest” and “Croc-Blanc” by Jack London, “The white odyssey” by Nicolas Vanier, a tribute biography “Paul-Emile Victor: the dream and the action” and see or re-watch “20,000 leagues on the ice” by Paul-Emile Victor.
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