Linda Lorin takes us on a discovery of our artistic, cultural and natural heritage. The underground Portland of Gus Van Sant – In Portugal, the rice of survival – In Canada, lobster with cream and maple syrup from Christophe – In Nancy, fair cops.
Le Portland underground de Gus Van Sant
He made Portland the Lost Children’s Capital of America with My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy or Elephant, Palme d’Or at Cannes. Since the 1980s, director Gus Van Sant has filmed this marginal and trendy city. He draws from it his heroes – junkies, prostitutes and lost teenagers – who wander without real purpose. Endearingly ramshackle, they are like this libertarian island on the North Pacific coast, a certain face of America that Van Sant has brought out of the shadows.
In Portugal, the rice of survival
In Portugal, when harvest time comes in the golden rice fields of the Alentejo, it is the memory of women and men that tears itself from the earth. From the 20th century, the convicts of rice, trapped in a quasi-feudal system, joined this inhospitable region to sow and harvest the precious grains. By the strength of their arms, the fertile plains of the Sado estuary became the first rice fields in the country and before constituting an exceptional nature reserve.
In Canada, Christophe’s lobster with cream and maple syrup
In Percé, near the St. Lawrence River, Christophe cooks lobster, a product from Gaspésie. To sublimate this noble crustacean, he accompanies it with a seaweed and maple syrup cream, fiddleheads – a local vegetable – with butter and parsnip purée. Succulent!
In Nancy, fair cops
In Nancy, Place Stanislas, named after a former duke, recalls the history of the city and of Lorraine. A story which, in 1942, was enriched by a heroic episode. During the summer, while in Paris the French police are rounding up the Jews, in Nancy, an entire service will act quite differently…
