Well, we didn't make it to France this year...but my art did! An editor for Le Monde Diplomatique contacted me a few weeks back, wanting to use a collage, Situation Normal, for the September issue. And so it came to pass. The original post is here if you want to see the collage more clearly.
So we went to the Kent coast instead, Birchington-on-Sea, to be precise - it stinks - literally! Massed banks of seaweed on the beach sent their briny stench right up into town. Not the normal seaweed smell, which we all like, don't we? But a real, deep pong - ha-ha! - oh how we laughed, once we got used to it and having done so it became the smell of 'home' for a week.
Whilst bravely revisiting Broadstairs (scene of an horrific seagull attack in which I was injured by its claw as it whisked my croissant up into the blue yonder!) I found Museum Without Walls by Jonathan Meades for 50p in a charity shop. In the Introduction he writes: 'Everything is fantastical if you stare at it for long enough, everything is interesting. There is no such thing as a boring place.' I bore that in mind as I looked along the cliff tops at what is essentially suburbia-on-sea in the form of Birchington's boring houses. It's well-placed for train travel, though.
I discovered the The Chapel in Broadstairs. Yes, a pub and bookshop combined. The guy behind the bar explained to me that trying to keep them categorised was impossible since, having had a few drinks, people just put them anywhere. I didn't find anything of interest, except the concept itself. I don't drink much, these days, but I do get intoxicated by a great book.
This building was close to where we stayed. I walked past it every day when going for a morning coffee. It struck me the first time as interesting, then grew with each encounter until I fell in love with it's austere modernism.
So it came time to say farewell to the sea. We took our bikes and enjoyed the path that runs for miles around the Kent coast.
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