Finding Trouville.

This afternoon we are leaving for a short trip to Trouville-sur-Mer, a small town on the coast of Normandy where Marguerite Duras lived for long periods of her life. Aspects of Trouville appear in several of her novels and films. The sea, the beach, the boardwalk, a villa, a hotel, a casino, seagulls. So this trip is a bit of a pilgrimage. Trouville is only 4 hours away from where we live in Belgium.

I’m sure the hearts of people who have read Duras skip a beat when I mention S. Thala and T. Beach. Places that recur in her novels, the descriptions of which reminds strongly of the pictures I have seen of Trouville.

Duras’ writing warms my heart so much. I want to share this. A lot of the subtle beauty of her work gets lost in translation (especially to English). I hope our little videogame can cross that U. Bridge at least a little bit.

Duras was not the only artist enamoured with the fishermen’s village turned tourist destination. The place also inspired Dumas, Proust, Monet and Flaubert. In fact, Duras lived in an apartment in the same building Proust had more than half a century before.

Places along a river or the sea play an important role in Duras’ work. Memories from her childhood along the Mekong delta in Saigon mix with experiences from old age at the seaside in Trouville. Along with people encountered or imagined, who all get similar names, as if they belong to the same family, or doll house in the writer’s mind. Climaxed by the strange mirroring of her teenage experience as the lover of a rich Chinese man in Saigon, in her own love affair with a young man in the last years of her life, here in Trouville. Both of which are described beautifully across several of her novels.

The weather report says it’s raining in Trouville. Perfect!