Three hardworking Parisiannes Caroline (Caroline Cartier), her cousin Kareen (Françoise Guégan) and Joélle (Danièle Croisy) go on late Summer vacation to Orouët, the coastal town near Nantes. Caroline's mother has a place near the beach they can stay at. For the trio of young women, the late summer is all giggles, sunbathing and freedom in off season at the beach. Then Joélle's work boss Gilbert (Bernard Menez) shows up at their doorstep. It is obvious that Gilbert, who has office crush on Joélle, tracked her down with "Oh I was just in the neighborhood and what a coincidence that we are taking a vacation in the same area!" spiel. He forces his way into the girls' summer house. His insistence can be annoying at times but he has a goofy, nerdy charm to him. He takes a lot of abuse from the girls being the only guy in the group. But their dynamics change when they meet up with suave local sailor Patrick (Patrick Verde), who takes girls sailing in his boat. Patrick ends up with Kareen, but it's pretty obvious that Joélle's jealous. Little tensions rise.
With 2 1/2 hr running time, Jacques Rozier's long winded summer holidays movie with the always watchable trio of lovely working class girls, is filled with shrieking laughter, lazy afternoons, hazy late summer sun and boozy nights. Rozier's not really interested in a melodrama with summer flings. Du côté d'Orouët is more interested in capturing the excitement of summer vacation and its fleeting nature. Mostly handheld sunkissed cinematography has an intimate home movie feel to it.
