The old abandonned "hameau" or small village, was constitued of several buildings that used to host two entire families and the animals they would raise in order to achieve self-sufficiency, as this was almost compulsory back in the day in this type of isolated area. The isolation is certainly what pushed the previous inhabitants to leave. Now, as our host told us, the support in France is such that people can choose to live in those isolated areas thanks to financial support from the government. The man that lived there permanently had as only income the Income of Active Solidarity ("RSA" in French for "Revenu de Solidarite Active") which is given since 2009 for people having little or no income at all. He had worked hard before in order to keep the renovation running, but for the last two years, he had contented himself with this rather small survival like benefit.

 

This place had a different attraction and feel for us than Eourres. It wasn't as inspiring in many ways. Instead, it was very informative. Indeed, the man had an interesting story path: Him, his wife, another couple and two single persons had decided to move there and renovate the abandoned village together. He himself had fallen in love with the area when back in the day, he had played music for the inauguration of a tunnel that connected the valley to the main roads. When everyone of the group had given a promise of purchase to the owner of the land in order to ensure the deal, the other couple broke apart and so abandonned the project! Tamtam!! Now, out of 6, they only were 4 involved. And they had to find the amount of money that the deserting couple was supposed to put in. Some sort of coincidence, our host saw it like a sign: he got the exact amount of money they needed through a member of his family's inheritage at that exact moment. The deal happens, and the group of 4 buys the land and soon moves in. 

 

Well, it wasn't long after, 2 months to be exact, that the other 2 members of the group left the project as well. The first winter had been like a reality check, and what seemed like a dream, an adventure of restoring an old abandonned village in the mountains became a nightmare of frost, isolation and, in fact, a pretty rough life! Now they were only him and his wife remaining, and there was no way they would run away as all their money had been put in it, and nobody would ever want to buy this piece of..."heaven". 

 

I don't know much time afterwards, but him and his wife had a girl, and some time later his wife left too. He explained he worked hard the first years to sustain his family and to turn the place into a livable house. But this determination worked against him as his wife didn't find contentment in him being so busy, and I must assume, in such loneliness and isolation.

 

So, he started the dream with his wife and another 4 people. And he ends up alone. This seemed to be a good exemple of a project that ends up far from its original goal. This is how the mayonnaise can turn to vinagre! Well, to my partner and I's eyes, this project and our host situation wasn't most attractive. This gave us a bit of a chill warning about how things can turn to some unexpected situation even though you started with the most wonderful dream.

 

On top of it, the man showed us around the house and the different buildings. He insisted many times: "If you have the choice between building anew or renovating, ...build anew! Then you can control every step from the beginning, and construct your house like Lego, block by block, without struggle, even almost from Google! But when you renovate, you need good knowledge about stone work, masonry, etc. And you need to fix almost everything, so you end up spending more time and ressources than you ever thought you would!". My partner and I first imagined to build our own little community, from a bare land, or from an old farm, or...from an abandonned village! And we were about to visit one of them just here after to "guess a look". But after visiting Terres Rouges and hearing of that dude's story, no offense to him, but we agreed on looking into building anew and maybe not go for the community aspect of things, that last point still to be surveyed.