RIDE & CREATE "BOTANICOOL" | KALICE BRUN The Côte d’Azur is known as much for its cities, culture and chic resorts as its natural beauty. But outside the hustle and bustle, often just behind the tower blocks, gardens and resorts, there still exist wild places on our shores. And in these wild places you just might find Karine Brun. Also known as ‘Kalice’, she’s a herbalist, naturopath and therapist, exploring and exploiting the secrets of the indigenous plants of the Riviera. Brun was born in the Nice back country and growing up spent her summers in the haven of biodiversity now protected by the Mercantour National Park. However, she also formed a deep attachment to the sea, coming regularly to swim at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. She also spent time near the coast at her grandmother’s, where, in the back garden, she collected plants and made mixtures in the outside basin. “It was forbidden to disturb me,” she says. “I was convinced I was making magic potions.” She made these healing potions with the same intensity as she did her adventuring.
These days, she lives in Nice and makes herbal remedies – real magic potions! – seeing herself as a kind of mediator between the human and plant worlds. She also creates podcasts, writes books and runs nature-writing workshops and wild food experiences to spread the word about the power of plants. Every day, she comes to Café du Cycliste for her morning coffee, sometimes spending the day there at work looking out over the port. She goes by bike everywhere, so – as we’ve just launched our Botanicool capsule collection – we asked her to take us on one of her ‘cyclo-foraging’ tours.
These ‘olfactory voyages’ use the plants they discover to shed light upon and interrogate her clients’ experiences, intentions, their links with nature, life path. This work mirrors exactly what plants do: grow into the light. “There are two impulses in my everyday interactions with plants,” she says. “An intuitive part – an encounter, a touch, a smell – that leads me to follow threads of information, and an olfactory part: why not use that particular plant as an essential oil, to work at things from the inside as well?”
And the tours combine the scientific with the sensory – sight, smell, touch, taste – providing an education both in the unique flora of the region and responsible foraging practices, as well as precious meditation time surrounded nature. Because – it’s important to note – foraging is not allowed everywhere, and certain species are protected. Kalice always forages and teaches – in a responsible and sustainable way.
On a beautiful early spring day, we took a morning coffee at the Café before riding out behind Kalice, foraging bag on her back. First stop were the gardens in front of the prehistoric site of the Lazaret cave, on the outskirts of Nice. Here, where wild nature was gaining the upper hand on the planted species, it wasn’t hard to imagine the prehistoric people using the same plants to cure and heal in their turn. It was the perfect place for her to expand upon the concept of the ‘garden world’, promoted by the botanist and gardener Gilles Clément, which reflects how humans have shaped the landscape and biodiversity through their centuries-long interactions with nature. “We can collaborate with plants but we can’t dominate them,” Kalice says. “Even if we cultivate them, there’ll always be some wildness.”
After Lazaret, we headed to La Darse beach in Villefranche, and then further, to Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat on the coastal path. As we did, we took in everything that surrounded us, wandering in the pine forests of Cap Ferrat. “Plants can take us on a journey,” Kalice said.
When you’re cyclo-foraging, every day is different, but here are the plants we saw:
1. Sea fennel: regulates water, fights cellulite and swelling. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, diuretic
2. Fig tree: symbol of Mediterranean gardens, relaxing, digestive, antispasmodic, laxative
3. Eucalyptus globulus: native to Australia, Expectorant, antiseptic, decongestant. Cleans swamps, allows life in unsanitary territories 4. French or butterfly lavender: relaxing, healing, analgesic
5. Rosemary: a sacred plant, stimulant, antioxidant, general tonic, detoxes the liver
6. Olive: symbol of peace and longevity, lowers blood pressure, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory
Check out Botanicool here.
10/06
