The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Outing Summary & Analysis

In this stifling heat of summer, Bauby takes a wheelchair excursion down the promenade along the shore. He hasn’t been down the promenade since winter, and though the route down there is “grueling” and full of potholes, once his interlocutor Claude and his old friend Brice get him down to the shore, he begins enjoying himself. He has only known Claude, a young woman, for two weeks; as Brice, his friend of two decades, tells her stories all about Bauby’s former life, Bauby delights in Claude’s amazement as she takes in tales of who he used to be. The trio continues down the boardwalk past a carousel, running into a couple other patients before reaching the destination Bauby has in mind: a seaside fry shack, where they stop so Bauby can take in the fragrant smell.