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Jean Guillemet talks about the countryside
This is a documentary montage built from 22 hours of recording. At 58 minutes L’Espérance de Vie was screened in three local cinemas – in Josselin, Locminé and Grand Champ.
The main protagonist, Jean Guillemet at the age of 76, gives us his views on the changes in society since the Land Consolidation, the departure of people to the city. Shops and schools no longer exist in their countryside. Life was simpler, but harder.
Jean Guillemet dépeint sa vision des relations entre les gens qui étaient plus simples dans le passé, les gens étaient plus en contact direct, plus ouverts, et nous incite à réfléchir sur sa maxime « c’est la motivation qui compte ».
The Simple Things in Life
Nous avons suivi Jean Guillemet sur 2 ans à travers sa campagne, 2 fêtes dans sa cabane faite main, une visite d’un menhir avec présent 4 générations dont la plus âgée une dame de 96 ans et sa construction d’un puits traditionnel sur son terrain, symbole de la simplicité de la vie autrefois.
Nevertheless, he depicts a harsh countryside where people went three kilometres to school across the fields, lived in isolated houses, washed their laundry at the lavoir and went to fetch bread baked in a village communal oven.
Dependency on modern networks
He asks whether life is better today, having become dependent on electricity and water networks. “We didn’t have money, but we didn’t need it,” he says, because even though we didn’t have much, we also didn’t have the temptations we so often face today.
Jean Guillemet does not really suggest a return to the past, but he questions the logic of some of today’s current practices. Overproduction made him react. “At one point we had too much [crop], we put diesel fuel on it, and burned everything.” Enough to ask a few questions in a world where so many still lack food.
A well-known cyclist
His friends describe Jean Guillemet physical endurance and strength as an avid cyclist, and yet rode only on a simple bike. He even cycled to Germany and Hungary. He tells us in his enigmatic way that it is not the bike that counts, but the person. He also recounts the major accident he had when a car he was repairing collapsed on his head, and yet he recovered. This experience has some kind of spiritual element.
Full of life, his friends and acquaintances share with us their friendship and admiration for a man who convinces us of the power of will, desire, perseverance and strength of character. He says, “If you really want something, you can do it.”
Jean Guillemet a le désir de transmettre son message à une nouvelle génération. Il reconnait les avancées en qualité de vie, tout en rappelant qu’il n’a pas toujours été ainsi, que certains ont fait avec peu, mais malgré les difficultés, trouvaient joie et bonheur dans les choses simples, à commencer par le rire et le partage humain.
Understanding the theme of documentary editing
This documentary edit was a challenge for us, because we filmed on all kinds of different cameras, including two iPhones and two DV cameras. This was 2012.
The editing was a real challenge, because we recorded 22 hours of film without a script, in various locations. But to complete the documentary montage, we were forced to sift through the images thoroughly, attributing subject and meaning in order to construct a reasonable chronology.
But the work can only be done if, as Jean Guillemet himself would say: “You can do it if you want”. The quality of the final product is not perfect. It would be nice to have had access to large cameras and better sound recording. But despite this, Jean Guillemet invites us to reflect on the quality of life and some of our fundamental values.
For me, some of these themes have been sources of reflection and remain contemporary in a constantly changing world. It is unwise to romanticize a physically uncomfortable past, but I think we are invited to think about the present, to analyse today’s society, our values, and to distinguish what is important from what is not.
Lessons for society
Pour résumer, les nombreux thèmes abordés par Jean Guillemet : la société, l’écologie, la simplicité, le passage du temps, la société de consommation, l’industrialisation et le progrès. Mais il reste un léger sentiment de regret que de telles communautés de campagne se soient brisées, même si ceux qui sont partis sont partis à la recherche d’une vie meilleure.
This film also has a distinctly Breton theme, since it describes the changes in society and technology that happened there much later than in the big cities.
And perhaps it invites us to reflect on the future. How will things evolve in the next fifty years? What does the future hold, and how will our values change? Are our relationships improving, are we building bridges in the community, or are people increasingly distant? What therefore are the values that we cherish the most, and where will we invest to develop our society?
Transcription of the text of the film
His cabin
I built this after my accident, which was in 2000… In 1999, to show my grandchildren, the world, that we can always do something, that is to say, help yourself, heaven will help you, that’s kind of my philosophy, I tell you, those guys who smoke I bring them here, in eight days, they smoke no more.
Ambition
Life is about getting on with your neighbours, with everyone, but not to look for the impossible.
The more ambition we have, today, the more difficulties we have, inevitably. Those who don’t have too much ambition are happy. You have to know how to move forward in life, but without stepping on others. Yes, you have to find your place, but you have to find a happy medium.
The consumer society
Overconsumption pushes us to buy things that we do not use. Those people who can’t keep up will change bikes, he says “it’s my bike”, I say no, it’s not your bike. There are gifted people, weak, strong. I say there are even gifted people everywhere. It’s not just in the biking world. Anyone who thinks that he can’t do it, should stay at home. I tell him not to come.
It’s like a positive system. Despite all the divorces that there are now and all that, there are people who stay together all their lives. It’s a bit of a step backwards, if you like, in today’s society. And yet, this is why I would like to show young people, schoolchildren. It will give them not hope, but a little happiness, perhaps.
I am always taken for a guy who is not normal, all that. Young people should be taught to obey first. A kid who disobeys doesn’t have a clear conscience. It is also up to us to teach them. It is also up to us to teach them. If we don’t teach them…
I see that Sarkozy wants to reduce the number of posts in education, it’s not the teaching posts that should be cut, it is in the gendarmerie. If there were more guys like me, there would no more gendarmes, there would be no more prison.
There were raves here in the woods. There were little children and well, all the cars stopped to let the bikes pass, to let the kids pass. That’s good, though, everyone grumbles about ravers.
Attitude towards others
I met the Chief of Newport Police, one meter fifty, and a psychiatric nurse visiting here. Well, who? Well, the day the doctor came here with the Newport police chief we go to see a house there, windowless, there’s nothing there. I had put some logs out. So the chief of police, he says, but it’s odd, he says, “here, nothing is broken, there is no vandalism”. The bikes, they had taken some bikes, they had left them on the path up there. He said to me, “you’e not afraid of thieves or anything”? I tell him no, I’m not afraid of anything. I say ravers, when they see me pass, They tidy up and then… [rigole] then. Once they had taken my tripod, then the big pot, but they left them there, and maybe a bottle of red. It didn’t bother me, it won’t ruin anyone. I found the frying pan, the tripod and the pot. If they had found the cellar, they wouldn’t have taken the pot.
If anyone comes up to bother him, he’ll turn the situation around and will help the person. He [Jean] might give the person something and they’d be happy. The person will just go off without a problem.
Education
In the cities, perhaps, there is a lack of freedom, and the concentration of people. It is because they have been neglected in schools. They were kicked out the door. The common thread of education… It broke down quite early in their teens and in the end they are left to their own devices, and therefore they don’t choose the right path – but they don’t know if they haven’t been told.
We should have more teachers and fewer students with each teacher.
Values
You have to be honest already on the one hand You have to be honest, you must not steal from your parents, because kids, they can steal from your parents, your neighbors. Other people’s cars should not be burned.
A farmer, his kid, is at home during the school holidays. He goes to work in the city during the school holidays. He will mess with the parents if they have not put him in a ventilated center or other, he is all alone, that’s it.
Growing up in the countryside
We were a big family, eleven children, I think. And they lived like all of us. Me, I’m from the countryside, too, very shabby, ha! It evolved in the flashy years, oh yes, after the war.
When I was born, like Jean, we didn’t have electricity, we didn’t have water service. After that… came the equipment, especially in the countryside We worked with the horses, the oxen After the tractors arrived, it was modernized. It’s gone at a terrible speed, go to school. For example, we had four or five kilometres on foot. Even my wife on foot, there was no bus, there was nothing so we went like that. We had to go to Mass on Sundays, we went to communion. We didn’t even have lunch, we went on an empty stomach. There is no going back, not the modern one… We still have television that gives us a lot of information, not only about the France, but about the whole world.
Young people have a lot to ponder there. They want to have everything, everything. They want to have everything at the end of the day, they want money, happiness, they want…
Democracy
Because we rarely vote the same thing. I never say who I vote for. I would have voted twice rather than none. Every election, I vote, but never, I will say that this one is better than another. Never! I was a shop steward at a hospital. I spent two days on Berder Island, meeting at the hospital.
I was a staff steward. After that, the delegates had to be elected. I was passing, but there was always a voice missing. And then the director realized, he said, “Mr. Guillemet, you don’t vote, do you?” I say, no, it’s not up to me to choose myself. I will never vote for myself, it is up to others to choose what they want. Well, he tells me, you are the delegate.
You don’t have to vote for yourself. The President of the Republic must not vote for him. That makes sense.
They believe they are masters of all. They believe that it is they who know.
They are elected to do what we want, but they actually do what will keep them where they are. Because they are self-seeking at the end of the day.
Some yes, I think some are for personal power, some, because they came from a noble family.
Doesn’t the freedom of one individual end at the limit of freedom of another? Yes, that’s why… society cannot be a truly free thing. You’ve got to give up something.
Public authority
It has become so much part of their customs, they believe they have power for life, and even from generation to generation. It is said that countries are very poor and people are very rich: those who are in charge. These are people who are so attracted to power and the largesse of power yes, but largesse for them.
Cyclist
So, I know, I knew Jean me first in the hospital when he was in charge of maintenance, the distribution of meals in the wards. As I liked cycling, I did not practice in competition, but I liked cycling and he was a fanatic.
These memories when he ran with Jacques Empilait, Raymond Poullidor among others.
I was with Morio Morio, but he was walking.
Oui, Jean-Claude, oui, il y avait Gugen Morvan de Lorient, Ehm, Merthier, Germain Et puis l’autre, Go de Combourg et Dafnette de Mofaxrlaix, j’ai fait Stella, j’ai fait les Birs 33 et Terreaux. Étienne de Clanche il était avec moi. Il a cramé, j’ai entendu, je l’ai attendu, on est reparti devant vous et je l’ai lâché sans m’en apercevoir.
Le tour de Normandie, à tes dix-huit ans ? Oui, je n’avais pas dix-huit ans parce qu’on avait des Muguets, c’était au mois de mai à cette époque-là. Le premier mai. À quarante-quatre ans, j’ai gagné Missilac Mais entre-temps.
Tu as quitté la circulation ? Enfin, j’ai toujours travaillé, on était obligé, j’avais une grande famille et on n’avait pas de pognon.
The Bike
There are fewer and fewer volunteers… It’s hard to get volunteers, huh? – It drops out a bit. Do you agree? That’s right. When you realize that after the finishes, they spend more money than for the runners. Do you see in Guégans how much it costs? The meal afterwards? For all volunteers. It costs more than the race itself. People are demoralized, disgusted. Why do so much advertising when it costs more than the race? It means that the price of meals and the like – it’s too expensive.
If you don’t have a partner, you can’t afford to do a federal race like the Boucles de Guégan, Manche Atlantique or Le circuit du Morbihan. This implies the obligation to go through the partners from the General Council and private partners who will give a hand so that this race continues. And they, on the other hand, it is not too bad either because the money they will give, they find this money through local advertising, newspaper, TV. And then talk advertising. The one who is there, we will talk about it. The one who is not there, we forget it.
The bike racing party
He’s my farm worker! Ah! He has his heart at hand
Very inclusive and…
You see here, we play boules Ah, it’s a bowling alley? Yes, I see, the first balls have arrived [musique d’accordéon]
Because he’s an alien to me, he never drinks. When we drove with him, he ran on foot on the side of the road to pick mushrooms. Is it crazy though? And then he didn’t ask himself any questions what. He, he doesn’t have a can, an old bike, he even rode a woman’s bike, remember?
He had hurt, I don’t know, in his neck.
On a woman’s bike, he followed us. With Jean, how many kilometers did you travel? Say, thousands of kilometers. I don’t know how many. Its thousands of kilometers. He doesn’t even need water. He doesn’t need anything, he has health, what. It’s as thick as a wire, huh? He wanted to say it, but he raced with Poulidor professionals on the coast.
He had made second at half-moon in Pontivy, it was a great test hold Jean, he is someone great with whom then -With the little
We are at an atypical site what! Special, finally original. Two people coming here. I spent the afternoon almost with them, I told him where it was that there were the two menhirs. To Pierre, I told him Here, it would be a great place to make a film
On our return, on the twenty-sixth of May two thousand and twelve, we will mark our presence in this wonderful site…
Look no further, I may have found someone to make a film. Three four days later, I get a phone call – no! You OK.
Making a film
I found Mr Guillemet on a bike
But he didn’t say a movie about this and that. Yes, I trust the filmmaker.
Like in a funnel me. No, you don’t know I’m dead, I’ve gone into the funnel. And then did you want to fix the engine of…
Accidents
That was the first one, it’s the one I remember more. He had put on jacks: he had probably badly stalled the wheels. The jacks had slipped and the car had collapsed on him. He really had to be strong to resist, especially in the skull, because the car had fallen on it. He had to be stuck under the car, he had incredible strength. Firefighters had pulled him out of there. They then took him to the emergency room of the Plouharnel hospital.
They hadn’t made me the… in Plouharmel and then, direction Pont Chailloux. I arrive at Pont Chailloux, two doctors were waiting for me. And in front of the radio damage observed. He tells me you are operated on tonight, finally tomorrow morning at two o’clock. Were you conscious? Yes… He had been transferred to Rennes where he still spent a good month, well half the time in a coma practically.
So finally I am told we can not operate on you and I stayed fifteen days in Pont Chailloux anyway without operation. Without operation, without anything.
Then I said to the little girl, if you come Noémie, you will put the fountain on your name. So the girl, she comes to see me with her two kids, Noémie. Hold on, this is the fountain I make in his name. She said Noémie, if you want to pee, there is a water next to the room… next to the Pepe bed. I heard that. As I had fire in my body, in the night, I say there are waters there. As a result, I managed to shoot two three flushes all on the body, everywhere cold [une cloche sonne]water.
Ah, Mr Guillemet, you don’t hear the bells? The bells, oh, it’s curious that he heard half a day with a sound, dong-dong. And that he was the only one to hear, he had talked to the doctor, he had talked to his neighbor.
The fire had started from the body, I don’t know how. His previous psyche, finally his… I don’t know if he wasn’t a believer, I don’t know. I say if, you here… Ah! He tells me it comes from the lower chapel, the chaplain must have forgotten to turn off his bells. Because here, there are only believers, he tells me, it is in the small communes, everyone paid a mass to the priest, then he had forgotten to extinguish his bells.
Because when I go to one of the menhirs, that before, there is a resonance that brings back the voice after. I’d like it because when I came back to myself, I heard bells [musique].
The Fountain of Noémie
So, she recently went up there? Yes, that’s why I do another one on the other side because with the rain what the source is higher. All right.
-It gives much less water, but for me, it is higher.
-You figured out how. With your pendulum?
– Yes, even without a pendulum, I can find water. You see with a string. This is to say that here, it will turn upside down [il tourne la pendule]. So what does that mean? This means that there are two sources of water, one that comes from there, the other from there, that crosses. But it is profound. It is eight meters away.
Can I do that too? Yes. He said it turns in the opposite direction here? That’s right, it’s that he says And yes, she turns with you – Yes
– Well the springs, they are deep at 3 m. It doesn’t work huh? Take a good look at the thread. You will see that when there is water, the wire will jiggle a little. I’m a magnetizer now. When I retire, I will be a magnetizer. It’s work, huh? – Yes, it’s work.
-I found axes in there. I found everything, a stone cross.
-Then at the entrance of the fountain, there will be his name on it.
-Ah, the star! Well, I went to see the fountain… because I named her Noémie 2004.
Noémie, I told her that he might go around the world with his film If it’s a great film, why not? As I tell you, you are the strongest of the strongest for having followed your idea with Noémie. I tell you, I’m going to make you the fountain.
And I told him that maybe the fountain will go around the world, jokingly, and you can write to your grandpa philosopher, that you have found a fountain.
Living simply
This is my dream often, as I have said. I have a house like many others, but I would like to live, it’s funny, in a room, have my fireplace, have a table, and then the bed next to it. To my dream, yes, but I will not succeed. – As in time?
– Yes, the account sold their farm, all that, they were basically sharecroppers on the farms. And my grandparents had bought everything with them Kermaro, Kerivallan was part of it, even at Désir.
I don’t know if it belonged. They were tinkers of four or five hectares or more, but they had three, I think. There were two, yes, four. Four bits like that. There were five hectares. How much did they rent? two, three, eight or seven hectares – In addition
– No, in all, eight hectares, something like that? It was already a big farm.
A big farm? That was enough for a family of five children and the couple, oh yes. Did we live well with that? Well, we were doing at home huh. At home, always four, five, we were all at home. And you were working? On the farm.
The children stayed, there was no talk of unemployment at the time.
It’s time for it to stop, for me. It’s time for evolution to stop, because otherwise it’s the end of the world. Well, it’s a breakthrough anyway, but now there are planes, there’s everything. We go to the Moon or Mars.
You want to go to Morocco for eight days, you’re not going to pay more than spending eight days here. So people still learn, they know the world better. We have more means to free ourselves than before. Holidays were invented for this.
The one who has reached the summits and the depths, it is because he knows life better than others. In short, he has seen everything in life.
Is life better today? I don’t know? Better? I don’t know.
We couldn’t afford to go to the butcher every day anyway, once a week, I don’t know about a stew. We killed a pig, we were in the mass grave and then we ate the pig soup a piece of bacon after with vegetables.
– And today? – Today, people are little, not happy because they have needs, more and more needs and difficulty in satisfying them. Our pleasure was to go drive the tractor, when had one. It was good, the time anyway. We no longer have this notion of pleasure. Yes, the simplicity that older people still have sometimes. We kids had fun climbing trees, running, dancing here, on the accordion. On Sundays, we would meet, we would climb everything there, we were having fun, we can’t compare.
Money
A visit, at the time, we bring a small gift, I do not know, a flower. They want the money. It’s just the money that counts. We offer them a book, well no. They are given ten euros, which is not enough. This notion of money has become too important.
But no, that’s the thing now. We say money, if you have it attracts money, you will have more. And when you manage to have them, you create companies, you also employ people.
We talk to you about the economy, we talk about salary, happiness is… We no longer talk about things, simple things
Speculation
Now it’s speculation. There you go! When we look at previous years, for example, there were no good harvests in Eastern Europe, the USSR, Russia. There, some bought thousands of tons of grain in France and in countries where it had worked well to be able to store them and wait for it to be the shortage to be able to sell more expensive as much as possible.
It’s true, it’s a little dishonest, it’s a little too much to enjoy the… on the misfortune of others.
I heard, that’s it, it’s the shortage of hay. There is no shortage at all.
It’s not about Rennes or I don’t know They took the opportunity to sell hectares of achère like that, but at crazy prices. That is to say still take advantage of it. Because there is none to sell at auction, to take advantage of people who do not have fodder. It was still the rich man who could put the auction, to get hay. He wasn’t one who didn’t have too much money yet. So it’s not helping the one who needs it most in the end. When cooperatives were formed, farmers were a bit against it, but they wanted it in the first place.
So for the farmer at the time it wasn’t simplicity, or joy, it was hard work? Oh yes, hard work, yes, but we took our time anyway. You could sit on the edge of the embankment talking to your colleague. Now they’re in their tractor and… They’re competitors now It’s more the same huh?
-Wheat, all this was done in common.
-Yes, threshing, machines, everything, that for twenty farms. Beat your plague at nine o’clock in the morning. As a snack, it was a milk soup.
Farmers, they are all… If there is a plot that is for sale, I can tell you that the atmosphere is…
But I thought it was good. We had potato chores like that, we had the casserole in the field to make the snack in the bowl. I don’t know, I thought it was good and good. When we went to do the threshing, it was the same.
The fair, Lady! The bowl? So half came home with their baked Half, almost everyone.
What made people leave the farm? Yes, it’s true that the guys, they didn’t stay. It evolved, we also wanted to see what was happening elsewhere. The young man, he left, it was to work, to have a little money too, pocket money, to be able to do what he wants.
– Clothes, dress a little better! Everything has changed everywhere. I am the son of farmers. At the time, we lived very well with small farms. We lived, but we didn’t have any ambition either… Today, at the level of society, everything is calculated for…
Always as big as possible, as big as possible. There is a scarcity of everything that is… small.
The more ambition we have today, the more difficulties we inevitably have. People who don’t have too much ambition, he’s very happy. You have to know how to move forward in life, but without stepping on others. You have to find your place. There has to be a happy medium.
We would live in tall buildings. In my opinion, politics today does that as well. That is, to group everything together. Farmers make big farms, stores make department stores, hospitals, and well, we’re going to make big hospitals. Schools are undoubtedly grandes écoles.
Generosity
Mom often told me, I’m not rich, but oh there, give them that. She felt sorry enough for people. If I remember, there were much poorer than us at the bottom there. A woman who was starving, she had just given birth. She had gone to see her, for the other kids. She had gone to see her, sending a liter of milk. Oh that she tells me, I give, I will not be poorer for the end of the year, she said “we must not be like that”
The countryside and the city
People who come to the countryside are more people from the city who want to find this kind of … Big cities, I am talking about, which actually want to find certain values of simplicity, of nature. I think that in a few years, people will also return to values of simplicity, in movements a little bit of… who sometimes gather in the countryside to have parties, something like that.
Solidarity
We let someone die of hunger more, we give them. We give money, but at the time, we had nothing. There were stragglers begging for their bread so as not to work. He passed in the house downstairs. “Wouldn’t you have a piece of bread or a bowl of soup?” I experienced that when I was a kid.
Yes, if the parents had a chore to do, they worked a little bit to eat. And they ate, they could sleep in the hay pile, in the straw. Now I think it would be done more. No, even if he would starve, as they say, he would even want to work more. And no, he won’t want no.
No, it is not in the customs. He prefers to shop in town, yes, that’s it. Going to sit on a sidewalk, then a kid with it, or something, and then doing the sleeve, I saw that.
It is a bit to show today’s youth how their grandparents or great-grandparents lived. To show the world that we weren’t that rich in France. That there was… There was everything. It existed without a subsidy, and it still exists without a subsidy.
The village
Here there was a baker. There I came to get bread. There from further away there in Kerivalain, I went to get bread. This is the first house going up to the left.
The Priol. He was also a cyclist. After that, he was a cattle dealer. He returned to Loqueltas.
There were two butchers, there was coffee, grocery store, everything. There was a school.
What happened then to make it all disappear?
By what there was no longer a job What will make you lumberjack? Wood is unsaleable.
There is no one left to guard the cows, there are more cows in the woods. Ten or twenty cows, the wood would always be cleaned, there would be no need to take bulldozers or tractors away when there is fire.
Because before, there were embankments that prevented the water from going directly. It was less stressful for people. Because now they have irrigated, that is, when there is too much water, the water goes back into a pond and if it is too dry, they have moisture systems, Clac. The machine goes automatic, then it’s watered. If we cut down too many trees, if we grow too much, since we can now do with systems we have, we could have calves and cows galore. It’s unfortunate to say it, but…
Chickens are the same, they can lay eggs… Well, is that a good thing? … They threw everything in the trash. While people have never lived so well without tomatoes, salads, … When there are too many potatoes or too many machines, they douse diesel and then we don’t talk about it anymore. They have subsidies saying that there are so many tons that have not been sold. That’s all.
I say it would be better, like Sarkozy, you will work more to earn more, no, it is to work less and work smarter. It would be much more logical to enter into the logic of nature and everything.
On site, a house in the woods
They were called Les Briennes, in Breton, it’s Brienne. You will see, there is an old farmhouse, the walls of an old house there. It fell into disrepair. That’s it, it’s the Proberte house, right? Proberte, it’s a Preberte probably Pro, it’s Pré and Berthe, it’s the name of the owner, I don’t know. And the names of the two children who were sick, it was Brien here. They had two cows. There have been others.
The Briens were also seized in Keridan. The bailiff wanted to sell us all the cows and everything. He probably didn’t have to pay, I don’t know. The cow merchant arrived with his truck. Everyone on this side is coming together to prevent this sale. And they were able to keep a cow or two. And then there were children, I don’t know what became of it. Afterwards, the cow merchant was mistaken for a thief. Here too, there were three children, they were one hundred percent Christians, even in the afterlife.
I do not see what they can do with so much money. I don’t know if it can make him happier or not. That’s fine up to a certain limit. That is, salaries should be based on one to ten for example.
But it’s more based on salaries from one to ten, there are people who earn billions a day. A creepy is not going to earn that in his life It is still not logical That the one who earns billions he earns with the money of others It is not with his money. That’s what is… It’s almost theft.
Associations are the consequences of a breach
Why do they want so many associations, the state? It is to get out of the way… They found a great system there. They say it’s part of the associations, that. He relieves himself of those responsibilities. If the world were fair, do you think there would be an association for the poor, like Coluche? Why are there so many people volunteering to serve them meals?
For example, before the war, when the state owned everything, there was poverty? Yes, but everyone was poor! I mean, there weren’t… The doctor came to see a patient, he did not get paid three-quarters of the time. There was no money, there was a small piece of butter or…
The story is quite simple, there was no water service. People had to drink, take water to the animals. They had fountains. The beasts came there? That’s right? Here, we are only a kilometer or two from the road.
It has evolved since the consolidations. There were five six embankments, there is nothing left. And it’s a big tractor that…
At the hospital where I worked…
I had 18 people working with me picking potatoes, because all of those people were former farm workers. As they were without families, most of them were sheltered by the peasant, who fed them. And when they need them, they ended up in the hospice.
The farmers’ hospice
Perrine Sanson founded the hospital in Locminé? How shall I say, for the good sisters. She was born here.
Before running water
Here there used to be a well to provide the family with water, whereas now we depend entirely on SAUR. Look at the toilet! Today, we would be told that it does not meet the standards.
There wasn’t electricity in the café yet and well, that’s what I missed the most. I didn’t get it right away, I was so used to taking the wheelbarrow, going to the laundry. They say, it’s funny to have the machine. Oh, I didn’t want the washing machine.
Bread in the village
He heated it the day before with gorse, gorse wood. That’s it, she said it was big flare-ups. And suddenly it preheated the oven well. It was even two days before, I think. Here in fact, it was a hollow path. The neighbors explained to me that they went to school there, they actually joined Grand Champ. It actually cut off, they were going across the field instead of taking the road. It was the hollow path that continued into the field. We see the bell tower, wait! From the kitchen window, I can see. It still saved them maybe two kilometers.
The menhirs
Because they didn’t come alone, I don’t think so. Let the menhirs come alone like this. And then that’s smart people to put them straight. There have been earthquakes, there has been everything on the menhirs, on the megaliths. They tumbled
Here there were echoes. When I was babysitting, there were great echoes that you sometimes heard an hour later, or a minute later, if you were far away. But for that, time had to play a big role in echoes – It’s curious, but…
– These were echoes of what? If one person was talking and there was another, it’s like we’re both talking. Four or five kilometres sometimes. Maybe it didn’t stop, maybe we can be heard here. [Sifflement des oiseaux]
Eight hectares, a large farm
In the there, I have two hectares, I have chestnut trees. There were eight hectares to share, I had a horse. In the commune of Ghenno, I was the one who bought the first tractor in the commune. I had the biggest farm, the most hectares. Easier?
Were you happy to have the tractor? I expanded a farm that was smaller, so I moved to a bigger one.
A hundred-year-old lady
Because my brother-in-law knew these people who went to school in Colpo. That would be eighty years ago. They had some land, two or three cows. That was it, but he what he was doing I don’t know.
We lived with little. Milk, we raised a few pigs. So it was pig, meat, a few chickens, but we still bought sugar, there was still some.
It was grown all there, it was all in meadow. Wasn’t they woods? No It was grasslands there.
You do more your garden anyway? No, I had it digged Ah, yes. I had it digged, I have my lawn cut. There is goodwill, eh. I was born in fourteen, April 1914.
There were four of us in April. I was born on a farm. So, I came to make my communion because there was no right to do it outside his commune of birth. So, they took me to boarding school with the nuns because we had four kilometers to go. So, I came back after my communion to finish my great studies in Josselin. I went back to my godmother’s house.
Studies of what? My studies? Ah, you know, I have some in there: the certificate of studies.
– Certificate of studies? I missed it, because I didn’t pass. You were not hard enough? I certainly would have had it, because I made a lot of mistakes. Really? In the calculation, it was fine. I knew how to count money.
About menhirs – UNESCO
So, children, gentlemen, ladies. On this prehistoric site where before us, there were people, they erected these menhirs, megaliths and dolmens. When we return on May 26, 2012, perhaps three thousand years later, we will mark our presence in this wonderful site, with children and centenarians. It can represent the whole world today, be it American, European, Indian. Since the departure by babies to the extreme (and is only in 2012). Not many people live more than a hundred years at present [pas de dialogue].
We hope that the cultural center of Brittany takes note of such a wonderful site, and that UNESCO, which already spoke 15 days ago in the newspapers, one hundred and eighteen countries, will undoubtedly own these places. So we take advantage of it before.
And thank you.
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