Greetings,
I'd like to tell you the story of Yannick. I need to read or hear the stories of people who made the challenge and walked the big step in order to motivate and inspire myself, so I thought maybe some people here like to read this.
Yannick is one of my cousins (actually my cousin by law, the husband of my cousine, but since they have divorced he's even not formally a part of our family, but for my siblings and me, he will always be. We are still very attached to him.).
He lived in a city in the north of France, had a classic job in a classic compagny, not really happy with it, just bringing money home. In the past, he tried another way and opened a small yoga business with friends but unfortunately, it didn't work. So he came back to the classic job.
Years after, after the divorce, he planned a transition with 2 friends: they planned to sell their houses and buy some property in the country side and live a meaningfull sustainble life. The conditions were: no debt/no mortgage (the price of the property should not be higher thand the amount of the 2 houses they would sell) and some other requirements they had decided about.
It took several years for them to find what they really wanted. During this time, they prepared themselves and learned a lot, like weaning from confort, electricity and so on and making goat cheese, building eco friendly and so on. Their dream was to find some small community/neighbors which similar ideals, reducing the use of money and trading goods and services. Like I told him one day: if you have sheep, I'm dreaming of joining you and wotking with the wool and crocheting and kniting some clothes I would sell on the regional market. he answerded: ideally we won't sell, we will exchange.
The visited many properties in France and finally they found it: in a village in a beautiful area called Dordogne, in a village which made the transition. The story of this village and the mayor is a white hope. I'll post links the videos at the bottom of this post.
They moved to their new home and welcoming community last fall/automn. They are working on their barn, they worked on their land and prepared it for growing next year (they covered the soil with hay).
So finally, after several years of patience, perseverance, good planning and setting priorities, Yannick did it.
Yannick and the two other fellows created a facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Oasis-de-Sent-Peir-2149316385394847/
(the aren't very active, it'sjust for friends and familiy to follow the project but still nice to see)
The short story of the village Saint Pierre de Frugies (in french):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQLa7slZYlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09MGEr33bBc
I summerize: 2007, the village was "dying", the inhabitants were moving away, the stores closed, the shops disappeared. The mayor decides to ban pesticides, to create a public shared vegetable garden, to promote the tourism (to create jobs), to promote organic farming.
It was successfull. People came from everywhere to live this way of life (400 inhabitants now). They even have a Montessori school.
The village give permaculture workshops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ezDYToY2Y
(an aussie guy living in Indonesia told me once the truth: french people, we don't understand you, we just pretend to).
