AUDO MAROIS MARSHES (France): Charles Defoort is the only postman in mainland France to make his deliveries by boat.

The 24-year-old goes door-to-door in a small wooden motor boat in the Audomarois marshes, a wetland region around 45 minutes drive from Dunkirk in northern France.

“We have a map showing where each person lives. So we don’t work with addresses, only names,” said Defoort, who has been in the job for a year and delivers to some 50 inhabitants.

The marshes, renowned for their cauliflowers, are one of a small number of cultivated wetlands in France. Tourists flock to the Unesco-recognised biosphere reserve in the summer months, but winter can be bleak and the community isolated.

“In the winter there are no tourists, there’s no-one, so we’re happy to see the postman,” said local resident Alexandra Dumoulin.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2022