WEBVTT

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We are also going to meet
passionate craftsmen

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in the Loire region,

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as we sometimes like
to do here.

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We'll start today
with an ancient skill,

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you'll see.
You may see it behind me.

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You may have guessed,
it's the cutler's skill

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in Saint-André-des-Eaux.

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Manon Monnier, Nick Resmann
and Hélène Laurenceau.

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Half past seven,
the beginning of a day

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in Jean-Henri Pagnon's favourite place.

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The Brière park,

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his playground and work area.

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It's refreshing.
There's not a day in the year

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where I don't start my day

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with an hour's walk
with my dogs in the marshes.

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This is where he digs out
the wood called Morta

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which he uses as handles
for his knives.

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5,000 years ago,
the Brière marshes were an oak forest.

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When the trees fell,
the peat swallowed them.

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For centuries the wood
has been mineralizing

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and preserved in the soil.

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The Morta will be found
under our feet,

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right there, or there, or there.

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We're going to have to dig because
under the ground, in Briere,

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there are Morta trunks.

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It's a 5,000 year old material.

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So we can say that at the time
of the Renaissance, of the Antiquity,

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of the Middle Ages,
Morta was already there.

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So it's very noble.

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In autumn, the cutler has
to find about 15 oak trunks,

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enough to work for one year.

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We have found enough to work with.

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Next.

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That's a bit of his personality,
full of eagerness and energy,

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a passionate craftsman,
who is even fascinated by his tool.

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I was born with a knife in my hands.

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I have always thought
that knives carry stories,

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popular stories,

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adventure stories, travel stories,

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stories of gastronomy,
and whatever stories you want.

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It's a multiple object.

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How many times
have I heard stories and thought:

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"If you had a knife on you, my friend,

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you would have been better off."

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Today, Jean-Henri is the first

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and the only one to make
this knife from Morta.

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His workshop is a symbol
of the Briere region.

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No one uses that anymore.

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But we like it

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because it allows us to keep
our hands on the work.

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It's not a digital cutter

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that's going to decide
where it's going to cut.

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The cutler fell in love
with this region by chance.

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My mother is from Lille
and my father is from Perpignan.

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Nothing to do with here.

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I've always felt more or less uprooted.

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Here,

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I feel I've developed bonds.

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Like a local man,

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he himself is unfiltered.

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We have the expensive knives here.

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Here are the knives
that are very expensive.

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And here are all
the unaffordable ones.

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The price is
between 110 and 400 euros.

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These are professions

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you have to be passionate about.

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It seems that traditions are coming back,

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I don't want to say "fashionable",
because it's not fashionable,

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but for the pleasure of life.

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If it is sought after by individuals,

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Jean-Henri's Morta is also
great restaurants' favourite tool.

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In the Brière region,
chef Éric Guérin can't do without it.

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It's essential for me to have a tool
that tells me the history of this place.

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In my hands, I have thousands of years

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that give me the impression
of carrying history, every day,

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of being there to convey
the history of this region

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and to get the best out of it.

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The history of the region, that's
what Jean-Henri continues to perpetuate.

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The self-taught man has created,
in only nine years,

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a new tradition.