In early June, we had the good luck to participate in a project for an annual film festival organized by the German city of Wolfsburg. The aim of the film was to show the French spirit, stereotypes, culture, landscapes of stunning, atmospheric streets, the real French cuisine (we ate a lot), huge vineyards (and drank a lot) and interesting places, through longboard.

The whole project lasted two weeks and the group consisted of 8 people :

Walter (Director / Producer) - the soul of the company ! A wonderful and intelligent man with a large knowledge and of strong character. He knows what he wants, but he’s also able to cooperate with people and listen to them. You can see that it’s the kind of director who dictates what to do, but he always knew how to find a compromise in case of problems. Serious and creative character with a great sense of humour !

Joachim (cameraman) – a warm and laughing man. Not afraid of challenges, even of filming on a longboard, which greatly amused him.

Uwe (2nd cameraman) - Uwe is a serious man, easy to be irritated by a lack of focus and professionalism, which you could not say about him. Always ready and waiting for everyone else ;). Anyway, both cameramen were just great at their job and took all sorts of positions depending on what the shooting demanded :).

Axel (sound director) – a humble, quiet and delightful gentleman, who always offered help while he never needed any. Also a lover of street graphics, large and small ones, invisible to gray people.

Sebastian (Paris Guide) – unfortunately, we were not meant to spend much time together, only in Paris. But those few days were enough to convince us it was a quiet person, but only seemingly. Always on the side, watching situations and enjoying small details that others did not notice.

Sylvie (German guide France) - a wonderful woman with a truly warm heart. We could always count on her, regardless of the situation. In cool mornings, she’d run after us with sweatshirts, while during sweltering heat, when we thought that the sun would burn us to ashes, she showered us with cold drinks and solar-protective oils.

Justin (a skateboarder from the Netherlands) – Laurent quickly made friends with him. A guy with plenty of positive energy, mad as Lolo, and maybe even more ;). We didn’t get bored with him at all ! Each situation was a delightful reason to laugh and do the dumbest things.

Us - Alexandra and Laurent - you know us already :)

Michel and Jean-Pierre (two random characters in the shooting) – two (happy ?) victims of Justin and Laurent. We tried to negotiate a contract for them too, but our request has never been answered ;-P

Our adventure began in Paris, where we spent three days, and those were some of the hardest days of the whole trip. The first shooting already started at about 6 AM on Montmartre with a fabulous view on Sacré Coeur and with atmospheric cafes.

In the afternoon, we ate dinner, then returned quickly (in Parisian traffic jam) to the Ibis Style hotel in the 18th district (small, narrow, dull and expensive, but with a good breakfast) to try on clothes that were sent to us from Germany ; then we slept off a bit and set off for the evening shooting at 6 PM. This way, we visited the Louvre and its gardens, the Louis Vuitton museum, the Pont Neuf, the Eiffel Tower, market next to the Gare de Lyon, Saint Michel, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Pont Sully Morland and we even had the opportunity to drink wine at the famous restaurant Le Train Bleu…

Interested ? :-)

To be continued…