What's Pressoir ... Watching!

by Victoire Chabert
June 9, 2022

What is Pressoir watching? I came to the idea that it would be interesting to offer you film content suggestions that are related to Burgundy, wines... or simply French culture.

To begin this series, how not to mention the film La Grande Vadrouille (meaning the "The Great Stroll"), directed by Gérard Oury and in theaters in 1966, it is a "must" of French comedy, shot and directed  in Paris and Burgundy.

In 1942, an English plane was shot down by the Germans over Paris.  The three pilots parachute and land in different places in the capital.  They are helped by two French civilians, a conductor and a house painter who accept taking them the pilots to the free zone;  they thus become, in spite of themselves, actors of the Resistance. Pursued by the Germans, the fugitives go through many adventures during their journey to Burgundy.

Without revealing too much to you, La Grande Vadrouille is an absolute gem that I will never tire of seeing again! You can normally find it streaming on Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video.

This film is indeed one of the best popular comedies in French cinema (it reached admission records for almost 40 years) but it is also dear to my heart because it was partly shot in Meursault, in particular at the city hall.  At that time, my grandfather, in addition to being a winegrower, was a volunteer firefighter and had the chance to shoot the scene of the fire alongside the legendary duo Louis de Funès and Bourvil.

La Grande Vadrouille is finally one of the first films in France to dare to mix a real quirky humor in the face of the grandeur of recent history.

Justine who lives in Beaune was able to take a picture... a fresco representing the Grande Vadrouille to tell how much the Burgundians are attached to the film and proud!