Fragments of FranceIn this small town of Côtes-d’Armor, the construction of a hamlet of “reversible houses” by young graduates divides the village, between suspicious and enthusiastic.
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His stronghold is “visceral”. On these wetlands crossed by streams, five generations have succeeded each other since the middle of the 19th century.e century, developing cereal crops and expanding the herd of dairy cows. Jean-Louis Nogues, 47, farmer ” conventional “ and breeder, recounts a few snippets of the family novel while caring for his calves, adjusting his brand new milking robot from time to time. He likes to remember that his grandfather had fifteen brothers and sisters, all born on the farm of Saint-André-des-Eaux, a small town in the Côtes-d’Armor, lost in the hollow of fields of corn and rapeseed.
In the Nogues farm, each plot has a story that we maintain. The low wall with the wooden door just behind the barn? We keep it, it’s a remnant of the Second World War. In the old chicken coop, the family stashed weapons for the Resistance networks, under the potholes. “One day, a German came to help himself to the eggs, as they often did on the farms in the region. We were paralyzed, even if some soldiers were benevolent,” explains Robert Nogues, 84, father of Jean-Louis. The German soldier only saw eggs there. Or he didn’t say anything, we’ll never know.
100 “Fragments of France”
Six months before the presidential election, The world paints an original portrait of the country. 100 journalists and 100 photographers criss-crossed the field in September to depict France today. A nuanced picture, sometimes tender, often hard, always far from prejudice. These 100 reports can be found in a large digital format.
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In this family of farmers, other things are transmitted. Politics for example. Since 1941, three generations of men have been elected to the town hall of Saint-André-des-Eaux, to promote the values of the “left” and of agriculture. Jean-Louis Nogues was re-elected in 2020 with more than 70% of the votes. Here, we are inserted in the Socialist Party, because, as says Alexandra Nogues, nurse’s aide at the Dinan hospital center and wife of Jean-Louis, at the “profit quest” we prefer “the spirit of sharing”. The class struggle is played out between the “little ones”, the dairy farmers on small farms – Jean-Louis Nogues recalls that the price of milk has not changed for almost forty years – and the “rich”, the “piggers” – the pig farmers, as they are known in the region – who everyone suspects are leading the way: chalet in the mountains and seaside house on the coast.
Is it this left-wing tradition that convinced the mayor to rent a plot of land to a small community of eight young women and men? Nicknamed the Light Hamlets, from the name of their association, they are all under 30 years old. Most are college graduates: fine arts, music, sound engineering, business or engineering school, sociology. They dream of building a simple, sober and ecological life, which would be embodied in houses “reversible”, dwellings that can be composted and dismantled without leaving traces on the ground.
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