The Beach

A sociologist once described peoples who live on the banks of deltas as more utopian-minded than others. In literature, utopia is sometimes depicted as a group of individuals living happily and harmoniously in an imaginary place...

One day, at the end of a little road, I came to Piémanson Beach, at the mouth of the Rhône delta.

I met Vévé and Karène, who each summer set up and sustained the “girls’ camp”, a group of caravans like a sort of tiny village. A jerrycan of water and a car battery served as a shower, and the beach bar provided a visual marker when people got lost. Camp rules were simple, based on task-sharing by the community and being free to do your own thing: everyone came and went as they pleased; there were no particular get-togethers. When you met someone there for the first time, you felt you knew them because they belonged to the same group.