I live in Castagnède, a village of less than 200 inhabitants located in the south-west of France, at the foot of the Pyrenees. The countryside around me is rather poor, sore by the agricultural and industrial changes of the last fifty years. In my village, there is no more economic life: cafes and shops have closed, there are only three herds left and the national road that now allows to go to work elsewhere. I spent a year with the elected representatives of my village, I lived with them small and large earthquakes: the school threatening to close for lack of children, the complex legal and administrative reforms to apprehend but also the Front National vote that takes root. In Castagnede, I discovered a community where citizen energy is more alive than in most metropolises but where political disenchantment is growing.
J’ai passé une année avec les élus de mon village, j’ai vécu avec eux de petits et de grands séismes : l’école menaçant de fermer faute d’enfants, les réformes légales et administratives complexes à appréhender mais aussi le vote Front National qui s’enracine.
A Castagnède, j’ai découvert une communauté où l’énergie citoyenne est plus vivante que dans la plupart des métropoles mais où le désenchantement politique s’accroit.