From Saint-Malo to Dinan, Stéphane Maillard photographed the “Monkeys” along the Rance

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The Rance, its women, its men and its boats… For a beautiful book published very recently, Stéphane Maillard went to meet the Monkeys of the valley, along this coastal river which forms the link between land and bay, between medieval city and corsair city. “Saint-Malo would not have been Saint-Malo without its hinterland,” recalls Stéphane Maillard.

Gabiers in the sails

The “Monkeys”? This is the nickname given to these sailors from the country of Rance, “those topmen who climbed into the mast, often in clogs, to tighten the sails” and made up the bulk of the crews for fishing in Newfoundland.

Stéphane says he was “born at a year and a half, when my family, from Saint-Malo for several generations, returned to Saint-Malo”. He has been a photographer for 20 years “and in the image, as a videographer, for even longer”.

A lover of traditional boats and a sailor himself, he has been involved, more or less behind the scenes, in a number of local projects, such as the Glaz project (construction of a Rance barge) or the School of exploration.

With this book, which he designed with Maxence Biemel for artistic direction, Simon Garcia for literary inspiration and Adeline Terpot for watercolors, Stéphane Maillard highlights his own work.

Meetings

It was worth it, because The Monkeys of the Valley stands out from the crowd. Far from the images of the Rance seen and reviewed, close to those who sail there and who bring its heritage to life (marine carpenters, model makers, sailors, scullers, etc.).

Half of the photos published in the book are recent, but others go back further, to his meetings with Jean Le Bot, and Yvon Le Corre, for example.

The first was a pioneer in the conservation of maritime heritage in France. “Without Jean, a break with the past would have occurred. Everything that sailed around here began to fade into the oldest memories,” writes Stéphane Maillard.

The second, a well-known navigator painter, had recovered the famous Saint-Helier pilot cutter, Girl Joyceleft abandoned on a mudflat of the Rance, at La Passagère. Built in 1855, it is today “one of the oldest surviving boats”.

From the Hudson to the Rance

Among the “monkeys”, we also come across Jean Le Gal, “an exceptional swimmer” (rowing means “swimming”). “He accompanied dozens of children in building their boat, before introducing them to navigation. »

There is also Clémentine Mann, a young marine carpenter, “who fashioned her first boats on the shipyards of Long Island, near New York, before swapping the Hudson for the Rance”.

“Mutual assistance and patience”

Stéphane Maillard hopes, through this book, to perpetuate the love of the heritage of Rance, but also to transmit to younger generations what is universal about it, and the values ​​that go with it: “Mutual aid, good manners, know-how be, patience.”

From Solidor to the port of Dinan, via La Landriais, Port Saint-Jean, Souhaitier, Mont-Garrot or the plain of Taden, the work takes us from hold to hold, and almost makes us forget that the Rance is not quite the sea…

How far does she go?

But actually, how far out to sea does it go? “For me, it goes as far as Cézembre. Its currents don’t stop at Bizeux! »

In The Monkeys of the Valleyhumor and poetry stick to the words and images of Stéphane Maillard. Not to spoil anything, the “prelude” by composer Yann Tiersen also finds “the right tone”

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Beautiful work, therefore, to slip under the tree…The Monkeys of the Valley – La Rance, women, men and boats . Published by the Les Singes de la Vallée association and printed in Brittany. 192 pages. Price €44 (including €2 which will be donated to local projects). Stéphane Maillard will be at the Saint-Suliac Christmas market Saturday December 7 and Sunday December 8, at Le Bercail in Rochebonne Thursday December 12 from 7:30 p.m., at the L’Étagère bookstore in Paramé Saturday December 14 from 10 a.m., at Saint-Suliac Christmas market Saturday, December 14 from 1 p.m. and Sunday, December 15, at dog reading

in Mordreuc (Pleudihen) on Sunday December 22 from 10:30 a.m.