The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This chapter is a vignette of a visit to the beach. Although the day brings stifling heat, Bauby would like to leave the hospital for thetown of Berck. Since the last time he went was during winter, he would like to see the town during summer. Even though the journey across three pot-holed and puddled parking lots is grueling for his body, he makes the journeywith Claude, the young woman to whom he is dictating this book, and his best friend, Brice.

Brice talks at length with Claude about Bauby’s former life, leaving no stone unturned, recounting his “quick temper, [his] love of books, [his] immoderate taste for good food, [his] red convertible” (86). Claude marvels at all the details, telling Bauby that she did not know all of that about him, and Bauby wonders what kind of person all of the new people in his life—the ones who did not know him before the stroke—think of him and his character. He also remarks that the townspeople do not pay him much mind, as they are accustomed to seeing people like him from the hospital.

They stop at a set of stairs that reminds Bauby of the entrance to the Porte d’Auteuil metro station in Paris. He recalls that he used to climb them as a child while returning from the old Molitor swimming pool. He recounts rather mournfully that the swimming pool has now been demolished, and stairs are now an impossible task for him.

They then pass a “well-known hospital character” called Fangio (87). Fangio, unable to sit, is “permanently condemned to either a vertical or a horizontal position” (87). He can, however, maneuver around at an astonishing speed on a self-operated vehicle, from which he yells, “Look out—here comes Fangio!” (87). Bauby muses that he is acquainted with Fangio, but has no real idea of who he truly is. The chapter ends when they have reached the very end of the promenade—the destination that he has truly been holding out for all day. He savors a delicious aroma emanating from a small shack standing on the path that leads away from the beach. Although someone remarks that it is a terrible odor, Bauby confesses that he never tires of the smell of French fries.