It would appear that I was quite the busy bee, snapping anything and everything with the Canon AE1 back in 2016. It seems to have become my “everyday carry” and the camera I always had with me.In 2016, I was all about exploring the world using just Ilford’s HP5 Plus black-and-white negative film. On this particular day, I had gone back to the Forêt de Grasla. I remember it being a fairly warm day for October, and it was wonderful to be in the outdoors.

The forest was one of my favourite hunting grounds for wild mushrooms, and Killian would be there with me, helping to find some “fungis to be with.” An old joke, but I am a dad, after all…

As you walk through the various parcelles of the forest, you can smell the mushrooms in the air, the decaying wood, and hear the rustle of wind rushing through the trees. The ground is slightly damp underfoot—hence the walking boots.

Now for a bit of history. I suppose you have heard of the French Revolution and its wide-reaching effects on my adoptive country. Well, not everyone at the time was very happy about the whole shebang. The “Chouans” from Brittany and the Vendée decided that they quite liked the idea of having a king, and perhaps this Republic idea might not be for them.

This led, of course, to the Guerres de Vendée, with Republican troops sent to massacre the counter-revolutionary Vendéens. Most places in France are wary of Parisians, but there’s an extra edge to this in the Vendée, and with good reason. Even now, the Vendée has a very independent mentality and has never forgotten what the Republic did.

The Forêt de Grasla was a lot larger than it is now, and the rebels would hide there, hoping to escape the Republican troops. There is now a museum, the Refuge de Grasla, showing how they lived hidden in the forest.

The idea of the outing, however, wasn’t history or mycology, but woodland photography on film. I think I managed to get some half-decent shots!