“Art is not free­dom from dis­ci­pline, but Dis­ci­plined Free­dom.” — Edward Catich

I must tell you some­thing of the peo­ple I’m stay­ing with. Noth­ing I write could pos­si­bly con­vey the plea­sure I expe­ri­enced in meet­ing them.

Del­phine Decloedt and Didi­er Durassier live in a lit­tle bun­ga­lo in Saint Barthéle­my, on the qui­et lane that leads to l’étan (the pond) de Ker­gal­lic. The house, true to medieval tra­di­tion, com­bines the func­tions of home and ate­lier, and opens onto a delight­ful­ly anar­chic gar­den. Their chil­dren are intel­li­gent, polite (well, lit­tle Arthur can be stub­born, some­times!) and tal­ent­ed. Didi­er is well known in Bre­ton music cir­cles as a per­former on bin­iou, veuse and bom­barde, as a mem­ber of the band Penn Kazh, and as Brittany’s most accom­plished crafts­man-sculp­tor of tra­di­tion­al instru­ments. Del­phine is a painter and cal­lig­ra­ph­er (Grand prix du pres­tige Européen des Arts et Belles Let­tres, Com­man­deur de l’or­dre de l’E­toile de l’Eu­rope). When, I stepped into the house, Mélis­sande was play­ing some Satie on the piano. She came across as qui­et, but not timid. Liam already has the “cool” of French cin­e­ma idols. Arthur is a rein­car­na­tion of Christo­pher Robin. Read more »