Denis est un pêcheur plein de verve, philosophe et artiste à ses heures

I have a house, it's a nice house, it's a dormitory, it's almost my chicken coop. I always get up at 4.30 or 5.00 a.m., I have ants in my feet, I have to go camping. I come to Auvergnier, this fishing house is my whole life. I have ducks, I have crabs, beavers, all that is around me. But I need it, I am part of this symbiosis. I think I am the last Indian in the canton. Because I live only from fishing, hunting and the lake. My hair is much bigger, I can't do it. We're going to make you a nice little knot back there, and it won't go away. Thank you, you're nice. The Châtel lake is the most beautiful in Switzerland. It's a lake that is calm, that is serene. We are welcomed by the cranes. I must say that you are a little more stable now. It's just like that, there is the devil who listened to us, he took everything away from us. I've been with Denis for 48 years now. Before I worked in a factory, I had a day off. On Saturdays and Sundays, I came to the lake with him. We don't look at each other if it's cold or hot. We say to each other, we come and then we forget a little bit all the freshness of the fact that we are in winter now. But it's a joy to be on the lake. It's a little brooch from Pierre-André. It's a long-standing friendship. And when he's not there, I miss it. We're almost like a duo on this lake. We have happiness, we have pleasure to talk. It's true that I used to talk more than he did. And he has very big ears to listen to me. There are 10 fields everywhere. There's one here. It's pretty funny, I retired. Then someone told me, don't stop working. I said, but I don't work, I'm fishing. It's not the same thing. We go there because we like it. It's a pleasure to be a fisherman. Because we have a relationship with nature, with the birds, with the seagulls, the goats, all that, it's a joy. And then when you look at the sun in the morning, it's never the same. It's full of poetry, the clouds play with the sky. And it makes extraordinary colors. Really, happiness is that. We are happy people. We are happy people because we like what we do. Because we are free. Because freedom is something I hold dear. I am a free man. You have to laugh, you have to laugh so that the sky doesn't fall on our heads. You have to laugh, you have to laugh so that the sky doesn't fall on our heads. I couldn't live without the lake. When there was high water this year, when there were floods, I didn't go to the lake for four days. But I was happy to be on the lake. It's a joy. There's nothing to get angry about today. We're going to cut another misery. But it's not possible, it's like that. We're used to it. I've already cut my legs. Hello Lena. Hello. How are you? It's a pleasure. The perch was good? No, nothing at all. It was a day of total misery. How many perches did you want? Yeah, about a kilo if you have any. I can't do it when it's cold. Even if you're in the freezer, there's no problem. Yeah, I take half and half. Maybe 600, 400. When you sent me the fish, I liked them. So you told me, let's trade fish. I like ceramic fish, they're beautiful. Yeah, you saw the totems, they're good. Yeah, the totems are nice too. Yeah, no problem. I have the ammonia, if you want. Great. So, goodbye and see you next time. Thank you. Bye-bye. Have a good job. So, you see, it's like that. It's days without... Yeah. It's not the Migros at my place. So the people who come, they have to bear the few causes that I do. If someone leaves without me being able to cause, I'm a little frustrated. I have two left. I had a very happy childhood. I was born in Côte-aux-Ferres. I had parents. My father was a menuiser and a baker. My mother was a daughter of a farmer. So I really lived with fairies. I lived, I simply enjoyed seeing insects. I looked at small places, I saw a small stream flowing. I could stay for an hour. My mother called me the man of the caves because I was a man who always dreamed of nature. I had an immensely happy life with loving parents. My father, he was born in Sainte-Croix, but he always loved the sea. He would have liked to be a sailor. He would go down to fish, up to Iverdon on foot. And he would come back in the evening. It was the passion of his life. My father, he was a dreamer. Maybe that's what he gave me too. He made sails in the middle of the pastures. And it was something incredible. In Côte-aux-Ferres, there were two sails in these pastures. He put this boat by the lake of Neuchâtel and we would go for a walk with it. We became fishermen because he instilled in us this fishing virus, my brother and I. He was passionate. And I saw my father singing very loudly. He sang until the end, until the end, until he was 85 years old. He was happy to be a fisherman. Are you going fishing? Yes! When he was very young, the first time we saw each other, he reminded me of Henri de Mauphrède, the hero of a well-known book, Adventurer of the Red Sea. And I liked it. It stayed with me like an image of Adèle Hébile. He has a beautiful dark skin, with a beautiful moustache. And he has a slender torso. You can see his pectorals, and he is a man of nature, with a tanned skin. It was Denis. He looked me in the eye, Denis. And right away I said to myself, this is someone with whom I could not get bored. Always going for an adventure. This is a little corner where there are morays. I said to myself, it's good, but you never know where it comes from. Look here if I can see it. It's just where it needs to be. My job is a nurse. And when I got involved with Denis, it was clear that I knew that I was not only going to marry the man, but also the job of fishing. I don't have time to see. Come here. She's afraid, this little crocodile. She's afraid, this little girl. She's a scared little girl. Don't be afraid. When we had children, it was so beautiful, that we almost made seven. It was a bit like the seven dwarfs. I had a bit of a hole, that it comes from Snow White, with the seven dwarfs. And then we stopped. We did everything to have three children. But she had a lot of work, because fishing is not easy. It's not enough to fish for fish, you have to sell it. At that time, with the three kids behind, she was going to sell the fish from my father at the doorstep. She is immensely brave, she is hardworking. Here, little Gemma, with perch, pike, lingerie, and small pallets. Fishing is still difficult. We had to go through the bad times, the years when there were no fish. And then I even found Gemma, but I was so mad, and I had no money, because the years were difficult, that I didn't even dare to tell her, because I felt that we loved each other, I felt that she loved me, but I didn't dare to tell her that I didn't have any money, because I thought she didn't want to take me. And then when she told me later, she told me, but that's not what I was looking at, it was you. It would make me cry, but it's a beautiful love, to see that we can love each other, and that it stays. It's in us, it's deep, it's too beautiful. I am lucky, because I have earned only little money to live, I never wanted to steal more, but this world where we think about money, I don't care about it. I love nature, I love simplicity, and happiness is, even when we are poor, because we discover the wealth we want, that of living well. I always wanted to draw, but I didn't draw very well. Then I had a drawing teacher who showed me that I had to get it out of myself, and that it wasn't important to draw very well, it's to give feelings in what you do. It's a poetry of the interior that comes from the drawing. It's something that I like, and I get into a kind of trance, and I discover myself, by doing drawings, by putting colors, things that are absolutely not what I thought. I have fun somewhere, I find it too beautiful. It's a poetry to me, a moment of dream. I realize that every human being has an infinity in him, but he has to open this box, he has to believe in it. We think we are bad, but we are bad. Bad is minus 1 plus 1, minus 2 plus 2, minus infinity plus infinity. It's up to us to open this box of badness to discover infinity, positive or negative. It's better to go in the positive, but in the positive, it's hope, it's life, it's everything that can give us this happiness of being. It's women dancing with their head down, long hair, very long arms. It's a game. This one is a crime, it's a man and a woman. The woman is three times pregnant, a pair of breasts, and I don't know how she could be pregnant on it, but it's a game. And then her arms are totally out of measure, they go down like that. There are days when we know it's good, and there are days when we know we're missing everything, we have to stop, it's not right. And when it's not in the inspiration, it's the chain. Sometimes my wife drives me crazy because she sees me drawing, drawing, drawing, and I realize I'm going crazy. I can't stop. It's terrible. I can't stop. It goes in all directions. It's like drinking a big shot of blue. I let myself go. I dive. I surf on my waves. People who think too seriously find me monotonous. I need people who have a little bit of madness in them. It makes me dream, a little bit of madness, a little bit of madness. I need people who have a little bit of madness. I need that. Wow! Hey, what do I see? Hi! How are you, Pierre-Yves? It's weird. What's up? There are cats eating me anyway. Yeah? Old fox. I thought you ate all the cats. No, no. I'm going to show you our mate who just got here and he's going to amuse you. You who have a little child. You'll see. It's really very simple. The extraordinary thing is that you think it's a clockmaker who does that. In fact, it's an artisan It's incredible. I have a whole crowd of your characters. It's crazy. It was made in Alsace in 1860. You should do it. It's incredible. When you go to his house, it's just a dream. His father was an ethnographer, so he knows all the countries in the world and he gathers works from everywhere. So when you go to his house, I join a little bit of all the wonders of my childhood. I discover. I discover works. In all these objects like that, there is a heart, hands, people who have worked, who have liked to do that and who have realized their feelings. So it's a dream house. I have a little blue for you. That makes me happy. It's very, very rare. You can see it. I've never seen it. It's for you. Cheers, Pierre-Yves. It makes me feel good. It's been a while since I was calm. Long live absinthe, long live blue, long live friendship. Let's go fishing. Pierre-Yves is a paradoxical guy. He is realistic, he is a little crazy and he navigates these two things. Do you see a gray? Do you see goats? It's a fish. It's possible. Little Junot, when he sees a little butterfly, when he sees a wild lamb, he jumps with joy. And by jumping, he is so explosive that the whole forest wakes up. And what I like about him is his songs, his songs, his freedom of expression, the fact that he can express life. And that's fabulous. But for that, you have to be close to him. Not too close. I always joke, because they are the fish, but they are my friends. Cheers again. Cheers to friendship. And to your wife. Hello. Hi, little Gemma. How are you? And the little dogs? They're fine. I'm happy. Even if it wasn't always easy, a bit like a boat on the waves, when you retire, you realize that you can say love words and that you've come a long way. That you've made a beautiful journey. And that's a treasure I have. I tell him, don't hold hands, say love words. But it's deeper than when I was young. It's stronger. Because there's a whole construction. It's like a jersey. A jersey on the inside, a jersey on the outside. We love each other. It's wonderful, I think. There's only one sleeping. It's so beautiful. When I arrive in the morning, it's the first thing I do. I love to see these little dogs. You're a nice girl. Yes, you're nice. What keeps me from being afraid of death is the success of a life. I'm really happy. I feel like I'm going to die, because the waves that come on the sand, the wave doesn't die, it goes through the sand. I have a bit of that impression. The ephemera is an insect that comes, it lives at first in the water for a while, and then it comes out of the water. It lives one day, and from that day on, it makes a life out of it. That's what made me think about the intensity of the moment we live. I've lived thousands and thousands of times, because I loved every day.