Juliette Binoche smashed a bottle of champagne against the hull of Christophe Bachmann's Grain de Sable (Vintage Mono) in Saint-Malo today, turning a routine boat christening into something closer to theatre.
Bachmann, the boat's architect and a keen amateur sailor, was joined on the pontoon by the actress, triple-starred chef Hugo Roellinger, and Jean-Luc van den Heede, the first skipper of this storied hull, known as Adrien.
Bachmann, in a rollneck jumper, eyes glistening, spoke of "a great happiness." Binoche, wrapped against the cold in a dark beanie, praised him in clear, measured tones.
"Christophe is an artist who knows how to reinvent himself," she said. "He designs houses and then heads to sea, driven by the pull of the open ocean and by the chance to meet a part of himself."
Roellinger followed with his own tribute. "In a society where we freeze up out of fear and anxiety, you prove to us, Christophe, that we can believe in our dreams."
Binoche then stepped up to a small platform, bottle in hand. It took her two attempts to break it against the hull, more amusing than alarming for those watching. Moments later a bagpiper struck up a Caribbean tune, and Binoche broke into a little dance, pulling Bachmann in to join her.
Elsewhere around the docks, last week's Storm Austen already feels like old news. Every boat has returned to its original berth, though some were shifted during the worst of the blow.
The basins were lively through the day. A disabled-and-able-bodied sailing challenge and adaptive sailing sessions filled the morning, while a rowing event, the Scol'Aviron, and a parade of traditional sailing boats took over the afternoon.
Crowds gathered at the tourist office too, where Violette Dorange, skipper of Initiatives Cœur in IMOCA, spent an hour signing autographs alongside François Guiffant of We Explore (Vintage Multi) and Baptiste Hulin of Viabilis Oceans.
With the fleet eventually bound for Guadeloupe, organisers have been running a daily feature on the island's people and places. Today's subject was Victor Jean-Noël, who chased his Route du Rhum dream against the odds in 1990. Short on budget, he bought a boat just 37 days before the start and scrambled through qualification exhausted but determined.
He dismasted off Brest only two days into the race, a bitter end, though it did nothing to dent his standing back home. He now presides over Guadeloupe's sailing league and has a nautical base named after him in Petit-Bourg, where he grew up.
