The deserted villages of France

We have been in France for over a month now, and predominantly we've been living in the French countryside, which is definitely our 'happy place'. From the hills of Sainte-Germain-les-belles, near Limoges to the plains of our 'maison' at Les Petites Rivieres, in the Charente Maritime region, we are constantly struggling to understand how the small villages of rural France survive.

These villages are 'old' - most of the houses are original stone construction which after hundreds and hundreds of years is crumbling, and slowly eroding away. But even with a serious 'British expat invasion' in the 1990's, which resulted in some spectacular restorations and community connections, there is really something missing.
It is not unusual to drive through villages, where houses are literally on the street front, and at any time of the day, not see a single person. It's as if the aliens have been before us, or a terrible plague has wiped out the village. We often comment that the villages lack a heart - the boulangeries of old where everyone brought their daily baguette (or three) have been replaced by the supermarche conglomerates, now sitting proudly on the ring roads around the larger towns. The village square might host a marche once a week but there are only a few patrons, the elderly, the visitors, and the retired expats, who arrived 20 years ago and formed friendships with the vendors. The British are now packing up and leaving in their droves since exiting Brexit has made lengthy stays in their homes almost impossible. They are subject to the same rules as us, the 90 days in 180 rule, unless they also secure an annual 'tourist visa'.

And speaking of the baguette. This, too, is much less prevalent in the French countryside as it once was. Two of our 'local' boulangeries have closed since we were here in 2024, and the supermarkets are pumping out mass produced baguettes - how do we know this? Because a traditional hand made baguette (more commonly seen in the larger cities and boutique boulangeries), is rolled by hand and each end is finished with a small point. The supermarche baguettes, inevitably have 'square ends' and its just not the same.

French law dictates that to qualify as a boulangerie - beyond several administrative and legal requirements (including needing to seek approval before closing up for a vacation) - one of the most important rules is that the bread must be made completely on-site. It cannot be shipped in from a central distributor or baked from pre-prepared dough. There is also a 'fixed price' of €1.15 set by the government, so you have to sell alot of baguettes to pay the rent and this, combined with the diminishing population in the villages and the move by the younger generation to consume less bread and more 'fast food' makes owning la boulangerie much less attractive than it once was.

We've yet to try a baguette from a 'dispensing' machine, often found in small communes in the country. I'll keep you posted.

It seems bureacracy is also challenging the 'renovators' of this era. Having recently 'lived in' houses built over 400 years ago, with the idiosyncrasies of nonsquare windows, sloping timber floors and irregular staircases, one has to question the over zealous building regulations applied to our housing today. These old houses were built with far fewer regulations, very little paperwork and probably a plan scribled on a spare piece of paper, yet, they are still standing, people haven't died falling down narrow stairwells, or tripped over uneven stair riser heights - they were just more careful! Granted, the craftsman of old were a very skilled bunch of 'tradies', and I just wonder how many of our current houses will still be standing in 400 years.

Which brings me to exciting news. The builders will be arriving on site at Les Petites Rivieres on Monday 4th May. Let Le Projet begin. We are picking Emma Lou up from her flight on our way back from La Loire next Sunday and she will be here for about 3 weeks as Le Project gets underway. I'm guessing we'll be busy. Watch this space.Læs mere