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Times
14-06-2025
- Times
Ooh la la! These are France's best beaches to laze on this summer
Holiday destinations need sunny beaches to make it big in world tourism. And France, being the top holiday destination in Europe, has a bucketful of the best, evenly distributed across three very distinctive coastlines. The northern coast, facing the UK, has some of the most magnificent stretches of sand, thanks to shallow seas and the wave action from galloping tides. However, the water quality (and temperature) can be mixed, so the emphasis falls more on the tradition and style of the resorts. The story changes further west. Around the jagged coastline of Finistère the water becomes clearer, the beaches smaller and more secretive, snuggled into creeks and coves. Finding them becomes a journey of discovery. Heading south, the Atlantic-facing coastline smooths out by Morbihan, where the beaches start to widen and lengthen. At the Vendée, down by Nantes, the weather is reliably warm, so this is family beach holiday territory par excellence, moderately priced and accessible by car from the UK. Towards the distant southern end of this coast and the Pays Basques, the surf's the thing, with Atlantic rollers grinding to a halt on the beaches of Biarritz. And finally, jumping across the foot of France to the Mediterranean shoreline, the focus changes again. Here the water is calmer, warmer and more luxurious. There's more glamour, more people-watching, and more splashing — of cash. The beaches in the obvious Cote d'Azur hot spots — Antibes, St Tropez — can also be very crowded, with everyone heading for the sea to escape the summer heat. So, wherever you go, there's something here for everyone. For the selection of beaches that follows we have taken water quality gradings from the French government website, which uses four categories: poor, adequate, good and excellent. This article contains affiliate links, which can earn us revenue Water quality: excellentCurved and sheltered by 90m chalk cliffs, Étretat's (pebble) beach is famous for its sea-carved arch at one end, supposedly like an elephant dipping its trunk in the sea. The belle époque resort was popular with artists, including Monet, and remains a retreat for the elite. Where to stay and eatThere's inexpensive local produce in the lovely old wooden market hall, some of whose 19th-century ambiance is served up along with good food across the road in the Taverne des deux Augustins. Stay in Le Donjon Domaine Saint Clair, a glamorous spa property with a sea doubles from £117 ( Take the ferry to Dieppe • 10 of the most beautiful places in France (and how to see them) Water quality: goodWhile Le Touquet and Étretat are partly about socialising with the right kind of people, in Deauville the beach takes centre stage. Particularly down its more budget southwestern end, where extensive shallows make it ideal for families and uncertain swimmers. Where to stay and eatUp by town there's a catwalk boardwalk and fancy-coloured parasols, and this is where the fashionistas strut their stuff before tucking into oysters in the Peniche restaurant, a converted barge, then retiring to the town's neo-Tudor five-star hotel, Le Normandy. Room-only doubles from £341 ( Take the ferry to Caen Water quality: goodThe Normandy beaches are not just about recreation. Gold Beach by Arromanches is where British troops landed in the Second World War, while Omaha and Utah to the west are where the Americans came ashore. So enjoying these fantastic stretches of sand today is a bittersweet experience, as well as being very educational, particularly because Gold Beach has German bunker sites. Where to stay and eatFamilies will appreciate the burgers at Sergent Willys, just opposite the Normandy Landings museum in Arromanches (£11; and all the green space around the converted farm-hotel Ferme de la Rançonnière. Room-only doubles from £79 ( Take the ferry to Caen Water quality: excellentThe Chauseys are granite outcrops 45 minutes by passenger ferry offshore from Granville on Normandy's Cotentin peninsula. The tides here are huge, but Grande Greve is an immaculate, curved, south-facing strand whatever the water level. Day-trippers colonise the sand in summer, but early and late you're likely to have the whole thing to yourself. Where to stay and eatThe islands are famous for lobsters, so try the lobster roll in the only restaurant, Contre Vents et Marées ( and then amble across the path to the island's hotel, with its garden overlooking the anchorage. Half-board doubles from £180 ( Take the ferry to St Malo • 8 of the best beaches in Europe for summer 2025 Water quality: excellentA little beauty of a sheltered beach at the end of a sandy track through overhanging pines, Tahiti beach is something of a local secret. It sits at the end of the Carantec peninsula and looks out across the Bay of Morlaix at the castle on a rock that is Château du Taureau, the French Alcatraz. Where to stay and eatIn Carantec itself, the Michelin-starred restaurant Nicholas Carro makes the most of the 15 oyster farms in the bay (set lunch from £30). His restaurant is part of the Hôtel Carantec, whose stylish, modern rooms are perfect for foodie, beachy, people. Room-only doubles from £82 ( Take the ferry to Roscoff Water quality: excellentThis narrow two-mile spit of white sand sticks out into turquoise waters, with rock pools and water sports. You couldn't really ask for more of a beach, especially as it is south-facing, secreted at the back of a sheltered bay. Sailboats saunter in, attracted by the likes of the medieval walled town of Concarneau over on the bay's eastern shore. Where to stay and eatBut there's no need to budge from Cap Coz, with the brasserie Le Canot right on the beach for crêpes and scallops and the Hôtel de la Pointe ideally placed mid-spit for early morning swims. Room-only doubles from £109 ( Take the ferry to Roscoff Water quality: excellentGauguin spent two years in the tiny village of Le Pouldu, on the softer southern side of Brittany's Finistère, where it is riddled with rias, seafood-rich creeks. The light here has a luminous intensity, the air so clean that it almost squeaks. Kerou is the best of a succession of small, dusky, wave-ribbonned beaches, where kitesurfers harvest the breeze. Where to stay and eatWalk the wildflower-rich GR34 coastal path and you'll reach the Bar des Îles, a London double-decker serving tapas on the beach. Return to the unassuming Hôtel Naéco Le Pouldu, with its dorms and apartments. Room-only doubles from £57 ( Take the ferry to Roscoff Water quality: excellentThe Morbihan section of the Brittany coast is family-friendly, with big, broad, generous beaches ideal for sandcastles. Carnac distinguishes itself amongst them because it is south-facing with silky sand, its hinterland littered with neolithic standing stones, and it is right by the placid, island-rich inland sea of the Gulf of Morbihan. Where to stay and eatAt Carnac, the upmarket beach bar Le Fisher is great for sunset cocktails ( and the beach's main hotel, the Churchill, is a modern spa and pool property, despite the name. Room-only doubles from £100 ( Take the ferry to Roscoff • 10 of the best things to do in France for solo travellers Water quality: excellentYou can't go wrong with the beaches in the Vendée, particularly if you're travelling with young children. This section of Atlantic coastline is effectively an intermittent 90-mile ribbon of fine sand, southerly enough for good weather. It is broadest at St Jean de Monts, backed by pedestrian streets lined with resort-type shops, family attractions and extensive campsites. Where to stay and eatGet your crêpes at La Bolee (from £7.50; and rent a mobile home at all-singing, all-dancing Camping Zagarella. Three nights' self-catering for four from £139 ( Take the ferry to Roscoff Water quality: excellentThe Atlantic coast west of Bordeaux is dune country. Europe's highest, at more than 100m above sea level, is at Pilat, but the best actual beach here is just across the water on the sun-washed hanging finger of land that is Cap Ferret. Here the long Plage des Dunes is pristine and uncommercialised, while the bay of Arcachon inside it has everything you'll need. Where to stay and eatThat includes a restaurant with a view of the Pilat dune, La Cabane du Mimbeau which combines seafood with Bordeaux's wines ( and a boutique hotel, Le Landerenis, with a pool and a bay view. Room-only doubles from £185 ( Fly to Bordeaux • Read our full guide to France Water quality: excellentSurfie culture has made Biarritz cool. Big Atlantic rollers sweep unhindered across the Bay of Biscay and come shuddering to a halt on the town's sands, with dudes with dreads hitching a ride for the last part of their journey. Where to stay and eatHardcore surfers may avoid a family-pleasing town beach like the Miramar, but it's a good place for surf lessons and people-watching, particularly for surf widows, who can adjourn to Milady for great food and cocktails (mains from £10; Or chill in the spa of the sumptuous Regina Experimental on the cliffs above. Room-only doubles from £166 ( Fly to Biarritz Water quality: excellentBlessed are the waters of Hendaye, for they refresh the pilgrims on the Camino en route to Compostela. Straddling the French-Spanish border, this wide, flat beach is simultaneously a learn-to-surf and family destination, while the town itself is a rail hub and old fishing port. Where to stay and eatA former casino on the shore hosts the Hegoa café (mains from £13, should a pilgrim want refreshment overlooking the Twins, Hendaye's distinctive offshore islets. The smart Ibaia hotel sits between the beach and the new marina in the old port. Room-only doubles from £110 ( Fly to Biarritz Water quality: excellentThe cove of L'Ouille sits just north of the pretty port of Collioure on France's southernmost Mediterranean shore. Many of its visitors arrive on foot along the coastal path. The beach is tiny pebbles rather than sand, but sheltering headlands ensure that the water is particularly calm, brilliant for snorkelling. Where to stay and eatCollioure was a favourite for artists such as Matisse, Derain and Picasso, drawn here by the light and the colour. No doubt they would have loved the hippie chic L'Imprevu café on the beach ( and appreciated the rooftop views from the Madeloc hotel too. Room-only doubles from £83 ( Fly to Perpignan or Montpellier Water quality: excellentMuch of France's Mediterranean coastline between Perpignan and Montpellier is a string of sunwashed beaches, backed by large campsites. Many are on a thin rib of sand separated from the mainland by an inland sea of connected lagoons. Palavas-les-Flots sits offshore from Montpellier, at a lagoon intersection, its five miles of sand busy with jet skis, stand-up paddleboarding and beach volleyball. Where to stay and eatThis is a place for serious tanning, with laidback beach cafés such as the Plage Bonaventure offering food and shade ( Keep cool by staying on a converted barge with a plunge pool. B&B doubles from £143 ( Fly to Montpellier Water quality: excellentThe south of France has one of the most intensely visited coasts in the world, but there are some secluded spots. This six-mile strand is on the west-facing cheek of the Camargue, a huge and protected area of marshes, lagoons and meadows. At Espiguette, reached via the small town of Grau du Roi, it seems like the sand goes on for ever. It's a place to find your own half-mile and let your soul hang. But there are facilities, even here. Where to stay and eatThe off-grid restaurant L'Oyat Plage is fashioned out of wood, reed and sailcloth ( And the Miramar, a more substantial café with rooms, is in town but still chilled. Room-only doubles from £101 ( Fly to Montpellier Water quality: excellentThe Calanques is a unique shorescape serrated by deep, cliffy creeks just south of Marseilles, one of which — En Vau — ends in a gem of a (stony) beach that can only be reached by sea or on foot from the small town of Cassis (two hours). It's a protected area and there are no facilities, but the clarity of the water creates a fantastic aquarium for fish, so bring goggles, but beware cliff jumpers. Where to stay and eatYour nearest refreshment is back in Cassis, where the Presquile serves oysters on its sea-view terrace (three courses £44, Here the Mahogany hotel sits above another more accessible beach, the Bestouan. Room-only doubles from £128 ( Fly to Marseilles Water quality: excellentThis is all you'd expect of a beach that is just down the road from St Tropez: iconic good looks with beautiful people, azure water and three miles of silky white sand. Superyachts, beach clubs, beach bars and water sports kiosks aplenty. Pricey, of course, but that comes with the territory. Where to stay and eatEat here, at Byblos (mains from £29, where every shades-wearer could be a star. And in the Ferme Augustin hotel, just up the road, they'll serve breakfast in your room into the early afternoon — how decadent is that! Room-only doubles from £265 ( Fly to Marseilles Water quality: goodAnother big name on the Cote d'Azur. There's a dozen little beaches sequestered around Cap d'Antibes, but the vast majority of visitors head for the heart of the action, on the long curve of the bay by Juan les Pins. The strand here is not very broad, so it can get busy, but that means buzzy too. The nightlife is animated and the horizon is a catwalk for superyachts. Where to stay and eatIf you have the budget, Effet Mer Plage has tables on the beach (mains from £24; and the art deco Juana hotel recreates the glamour of the 1930s. Room-only doubles from £196 ( Fly to Nice Water quality: excellentCap Ferrat is a dangling foot of land east of Nice, caught in the act of kicking a ball at Monte Carlo. Plage Paloma sits on its instep, a well kept slice of small pebbles and coarse sand, down a small flight of steps and shaded by pines. The water here is clean, but it is the outlook that makes Paloma special, with a distant Monaco gleaming like spilt paint on the flank of the Alpes Maritimes region. Where to stay and eatIn the evening, eat in Léo Léa by the St Jean marina just to the north, watching the lights come up (mains from £15; To complete the picture, stay in an Italianate villa, the Brise Marine, walking distance from Paloma. Room-only doubles from £148 ( Fly to Nice Water quality: poorThe water may not be tip top, but France's most fashionable resort between the wars has retained its art deco elegance and appeal, in part because it is so accessible from Paris. Given the water quality, many opt for sand yachting on its undeniably magnificent eight miles of flat sand. Where to stay and eatBack in the day, the likes of Noël Coward and Winston Churchill were Le Touquet regulars, and you can even buy scones in Elizabeth's, a British style tea-room. The imperious Hôtel Barrière Le Westminster is where everyone grand stays. You might see the Macrons, who have a holiday home here. Room-only doubles from £212 ( Take Le Shuttle to Calais Have we missed your favourite beach in France? Share your secret in the comments
Hospitality Net
13-06-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
A Riviera Icon Reimagined: Le Beauvallon Opens Its Doors to Guests for the First Time in Nearly a Decade
Le Beauvallon, which first opened in 1914, distils the essence of the Cote D'Azur lifestyle: a striking Belle Epoque palace, 10 acres of terraces and gardens with palms and umbrella pines overlooking the Bay of Saint-Tropez, a glamorous Mediterranean beach club, and a private pontoon for yacht tenders. Occupying a beachside location and adjacent to the renowned Golf Club de Beauvallon, the hotel is only eight minutes by boat from the vibrant heart of 'St Trop' on the other side of the bay. After nearly a decade of playing host to unforgettable celebrations and events, this Riviera icon is beginning a new chapter. Our 25 sea-facing suites will be available for individual guest stays. The shift, from a private events venue to a classic hotel, will appeal to guests in search of a last minute, hyper-exclusive summer vacation — with suites available from 1 July to 31 October 2025. The news also marks the first part of a significant two-phase development for Le Beauvallon in collaboration with the COMO brand — a family-owned, luxury hospitality company founded by Mrs Christina Ong. Over the last 30 years, COMO, headquartered in Singapore, has developed a portfolio hotels, resorts and private islands in 20 destinations worldwide. The brand is renowned for precise service, holistic wellness, and exceptional, Michelin-starred cuisine. Marking a vibrant new chapter, the hotel's iconic beach club unveils a bold and original culinary concept for summer 2025. Guests are invited to savour an inventive fusion of Asian and Mediterranean flavours, served with panoramic views of the Bay of Saint-Tropez in a relaxed, sun-soaked seaside atmosphere. For next year, COMO Le Beauvallon will launch new culinary concepts created by Yannick Alléno, a visionary chef and the most decorated talent in the Michelin Guide, with 17 stars to his name. For further information for 2025 visit or email [email protected] Beach club bookings for summer 2025: [email protected] For further information on the 2026 season visit Hotel website
BreakingNews.ie
25-05-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Suspected arson causes second major power outage in south of France
A second major power outage hit south-eastern France, this time in the city of Nice, after a suspected arson damaged an electrical facility. Police have not yet established a link between the blackout that affected parts of Nice as well as nearby cities of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-du-Var on Sunday, and a power outage on Saturday that disrupted the city of Cannes during the closing day of its renowned film festival. Advertisement The Nice blackout started around 2am and left some 45,000 households without electricity. Employees stand outside a shop during an electricity outage in Cannes, southern France (Natacha Pisarenko/AP) The city's trams stopped and power was briefly cut to the Nice Cote d'Azur airport during its overnight closure hours. Power was fully restored by 5.30am, according to the energy provider company Enedis. The Nice public prosecutor said a criminal investigation has been opened for 'organised arson'. Advertisement On Saturday, two other installations in the Alpes Maritime department were damaged in what officials also suspected to be arson, temporarily cutting power to 160,000 homes, including events at the Cannes Film Festival. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi condemned Sunday's attack and said the city had filed a complaint. 'I strongly denounce these malicious acts targeting our country,' he said on X. He ordered all sensitive electrical infrastructure in the city to be placed under police protection. Advertisement 'These actions can have serious consequences, particularly on hospitals,' Mr Estrosi said at a press briefing on Sunday. 'As long as the perpetrators haven't been caught, we will remain on high alert.'
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Cannes goes kinky! 'Fetish fashion' takes over red carpet as stars don their finest leather looks amid film festival's crackdown on 'naked' outfits
Movie stars have brought A-list fashion to the red carpet on the Cote d'Azur during this year's Cannes Film Festival - but as the organisers have implemented a dress code crackdown, an unexpected trend has emerged. In a first for the festival, a wave of celebrities appeared at premieres and photocalls donning their finest leather garments - whether in statement boots, biker jackets or full frocks. From Alexander Skarsgard's eyebrow-raising thigh-high 'fetish boots' to Zoe Saldana pairing her black gown with a biker jacket and Nicole Kidman in a corseted leather top, the celebs have truly embraced the divisive material on the traditionally formal Cannes red carpet. Skarsgård has taken a leaf out of Margot Robbie 's style book by 'method dressing' throughout the festival, wearing outfits that match the theme of his film Pillion, which he has been promoting. The 48-year-old plays Ray, a biker gang leader, in the film, which made its debut to rave reviews at the festival, and he's been dressing in leather as an homage to his character. During a screening for the film on Sunday, Skarsgård smiled alongside his costars wearing a pair of leather Loewe trousers and matching motorcycle boots, a white vintage t-shirt and aviator sunglasses. He posed up a storm, showing off his leather ensemble much to the delight of many of his fans. 'I'm never getting over Alexander Skarsgard in leather pants, GOOD LORD,' one woman tweeted. At the premiere of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Zoe Saldaña gave classic glamour an edgy twist by wearing an leather coat over the top of her sleek black Saint Laurent gown 'Alexander Skarsgård wearing leather pants for the premiere of his new queer film…I'm obsessed with this man, you don't understand,' another remarked. 'The one thing Alexander Skarsgård is going to do is play up the theme of his film on the red carpet,' someone added. Later that evening at the film The Phoenician Scheme's red carpet premiere, the actor upped the ante and wowed fans by pairing his sleek formal suit with a pair of Saint Laurent 'fetish' boots that went well up past his knees. The thigh-high boots with a loose fit and buckle detailing were a stark contrast to the dapper double-breasted tuxedo with silk lapels he styled them with. 'Alexander Skarsgård in these kinky Saint Laurent boots,' one fan commented online, and another wrote: 'Love a man in a thigh high.' And Skarsgård isn't the only one to jump aboard the 'fetish dressing' trend. Nicole Kidman donned an edgy Balenciaga leather corseted jacket as she was presented the 2025 Women In Motion Award during the film festival on Sunday. The A-lister looked incredible as she embodied 'motocore' style in the corset-style leather jacket, which she teamed with low-rise jeans and a chunky belt. At the premiere of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Zoe Saldaña gave classic glamour an edgy twist by wearing an oversized leather coat over the top of her sleek black Saint Laurent gown. Later that evening, the actor upped the ante and wowed fans by pairing his sleek formal suit with a pair of Saint Laurent 'fetish' boots that went well up past his knees She clutched the jacket so it sat below her shoulders while posing for and waving to the flurry of photographers alongside her husband, Marco Perego. Gabbriette brought out her inner spy at the Mission Impossible premiere, opting for a head-to-toe leather look. The model was oozing Gothic glamour as she wore a structured, floor-length black leather gown and chunky silver jewellery by brand Chrome Hearts. This year's Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche went for a Matrix-like leather look at the Trophee Chopard Dinner on Saturday. The French actress looked chic in the skin-tight off-shoulder dress with a front zip and thigh-high split. She wore latex-like boots under the dress and paired the rebellious look with a pair of black sunglasses. Other celebrities took a more subtle approach to 'fetish dressing'. At Sunday's The Phoenician premiere, Julianne Moore stunned in a simple Bottega Veneta dress with a risqué feature. The black sheath frock included one single strap made from strings of leather tied into a knot ,with its tassels not looking dissimilar to a whip. Gabbriette brought out her inner spy at the Mission Impossible premiere oozing Gothic glamour as she wore a structured, floor-length black leather gown and chunky silver jewellery The 'kinky' fashion fad comes after Cannes updated its dress code to ban 'nude dressing' just days before the festival was due to begin. According to organisers, the austere move is an attempt to stifle the celebrity trend for 'naked dresses' - namely provocative outfits that reveal considerably more than they conceal - on the red carpet. 'For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as any other area of the festival,' states a Cannes festival document. 'The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.' The surprise new policy features in a recent festival-goers charter, released with a series of outlines regarding expected public behaviour. Guests are expected to converge on the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière for some of the highest profile film screenings across a packed seven-day schedule in Cannes. It's understood that the iconic venue now adopts a more conservative dress code, with suits, dinner jackets, and floor-length evening gowns generally favoured over headline-grabbing ensembles. Classic little black dresses, cocktail dresses, pant-suits, dressy tops and elegant sandals, 'with or without a heel', will also be permitted. While the decision to implement a more stringent policy will be a first, it is not known if French TV broadcasters, wary of airing nudity, played a role in its enforcement. Major red carpet events, including the Cannes Film Festival, are aired in France by France Télévisions. Recently attracting more models and influencers than actors and filmmakers, the annual ceremony has seen an increase in risque red carpet fashion statements.
CBC
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
A dystopian animated short featuring Jay Baruchel leads Canadian films at Cannes
Anxiety is the theme at this year's Cannes Film Festival. No, I'm not referring to the Doechii song (though I'm sure that'll be playing at all the afterparties); or the chatter around Trump's proposed 100 per cent tariff on international films; or programming like Ari Aster's Eddington, which taps into post pandemic divisiveness, and the final Mission: Impossible, where Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt wages war on an insidious AI. I'm talking about the Canadian films at Cannes this year, arriving on the Cote D'Azur like a dark cloud. There's Anne Émond's Peak Everything, about a man feeling emotionally crippled by the climate crisis. Its French title is Amour Apocalypse. Félix Dufour-Laperrière's animated feature Death Does Not Exist follows the tumultuous inner-life of a radical activist wrestling with existential decisions they must make to save society from where it's headed. In Martine Frossard's animated short Hypersensitive, a woman's fraught search for emotional healing sends her down a surreal rabbit hole that brings her closer to nature. And Bread Will Walk, Alex Boya's eerie and macabre animated short about two kids on a nightmarish journey, imagines the most fantastical take on what the world would be if we stay comfortable and complacent. The latter features Jay Baruchel, Canada's king of anxiety-riddled comedy, lending his vocals to the two children trying to hide from a world struck by a zombie-like plague caused by biochemically engineered food. People are mutating into bread. They're rounded up into concentration camps and fighting starvation by eating each other. It's a Hansel and Gretel meets Grapes of Wrath kind of story that taps into the same worry over industrial farming, mass production and commodification of our most bare necessities that Baruchel has grappled with in his apocalyptic documentary series We're All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel). "It dovetails with my cynical worldview perfectly," Baruchel says, of his collaboration with Boya. Both are on a Zoom call with CBC Arts to discuss representing Canada at Cannes with a film that Baruchel describes as "Brothers Grimm with a healthy dose of 21st century nihilism." We're a couple weeks out from the festival. Baruchel is calling in from his Toronto home, sporting a Montreal Canadians hoodie and cap, and bringing his boisterous and huggable energy to the conversation. Boya, is at his National Film Board (NFB) desk in Montreal, surrounded by film props and gadgets. Boya hoists up to his camera a creepy animatronic of the main character in Bread Will Walk and a massive, mutated melange of actual bread, which he experimented with when he considered making his film using stop-motion animation. "That's disgusting," Baruchel says. One of the reasons Boya abandoned the stop motion approach is because his attempts at filming an animatronic character turning into bread, by using a translucent oven and actual yeast, risked burning down the NFB. "There's all kinds of biohazardous iterations of the project," says Boya, with a mischievous grin. Boya is an experimenter. He tinkers with all the ways he can push technology for his art. As we're talking, he's got a prototype robotics arm strapped to his wrist, which he's using to study "muscle memory alongside temporality" for a project where robotics meets cognitive science and animation/art. He regularly drops head-spinning concepts into our conversation, which would be intimidating if he weren't so gentle and genuine about it all. "He is whatever the exact opposite of full of shit is," is Baruchel's take on Boya. Bread Will Walk is actually drawn from his graphic novel about a walking bread pandemic, The Mill, which Boya originally published — right before the pandemic had everyone stuck at home baking bread — in NFT form. He says he was exploring "database storytelling" and atomizing his story into a world-building project. When approaching Bread Will Walk, Boya even tried on the latest AI tools, to see if they could push the animation further. "I had an open mind with regards to a lot of these new technologies," he says. "But to do exactly what we were doing, it looked better when a human being does it. "You realize that the authorship of a human being speaking to another one, a lot of that happens in the invisible space between the frames," Boya continues, explaining the relationship to the screen and its audience. "That is really a communication between two people. Can I have two robots talk over a coffee? What's the point, right? You can have a coffee shop with two language models talking to each other and the coffee is going to get cold. There's something existentially innate about speaking as humans that is embedded in storytelling and embedded in filmmaking and animation." Keeping humanity at the centre also happens to be Bread Will Walking 's whole aesthetic. The film's evocative hand drawn animation, all bleeding earthy colours and sinewy lines, moves like one continuous shot, where it appears less like the characters are roaming through the world, and more like the environment is mutating around them. They remain the constant in a dehumanizing landscape. The other constant is Baruchel, who voices not only the two kids but all the other hostile characters who enter their orbit. It's a task that Baruchel admits stretched his vocal talents, even though he's really seasoned at this kind of gig. Long before Baruchal spent a decade behind the mic as Hiccup in the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, he was a voice actor in animation and French to English dubs. In fact, one of his earliest gigs was another NFB animated short called One Divided by Two: Kids and Divorce, a film about how triggering divorce can be, which itself was pretty triggering for Baruchel. "I was a 12-year-old kid whose parents' marriage was imploding before my eyes," he says. "[It] was more of a bummer than even this one." The stretch for Baruchel this time around was the singing during a crucial moment in Bread Will Walk, which he describes as both a scary and humbling proposition. "They were cool enough to say if you don't want to sing you don't have to," he says. "But of course, I am a narcissist and a whore, so I was like, 'of course.' … Everybody there was wonderful but good lord, did I ever feel like a guy stuck on a mountain." For Boya, Baruchel's struggle on that mountain, his anxiety during the process, becomes part of the text, and the humanity between the frames. It also reinforces his reasoning for having one actor voice everyone, as if the whole film was an expression of a singular inner monologue. "You're kind of in this limbic state," says Boya. "The character is almost talking to themselves and having all these characters within themselves." Boya then addresses Baruchel about his performance directly: "The tension of having you defy yourself, define yourself and then fight with yourself in this procedural, adversarial learning of carbon-based matter is quite special to see. And quite special to see documented."
