Jean Guillemet talks about the countryside
This is a documentary on Jean Guillemet, l’Espérance de Vie, which 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 depicts his vision of simpler personal relationships, people were in more direct contact, more open, and encourages us to reflect on his maxim, “It’s the motivation that counts”.
The Simple Things in Life
We followed Jean Guillemet over 2 years through his campaign, 2 parties in his handmade hut, a visit to a menhir with 4 generations present, the oldest of which is a 96-year-old lady and his construction of a traditional well on his land, symbol of the simplicity of life in the past.
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 wants to pass on his message to a new generation. He recognizes improvements in quality of life, while recalling that it has not always been so, that some have done with little, and despite the difficulties, found joy and happiness in simple things, starting with laughter and human sharing.
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
Jean Guillemet addresses many themes including society, ecology, the passage of time, consumer society, industrial progress against a simpler life gone by. But there remains a slight sense of regret that such rural communities have broken up, even if those who left went in search of a better life.
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. 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 went to see a house there, there were windows missing. I had put some logs out. So the chief of police, says, but it is curious “At home, nothing is broken, nothing vandalized”. The bikes, they had taken some bikes, they had left them on the path up there. He said to me: “Aren’t you 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 someone comes to annoy him, he will turn the situation around and will help the person, he [Jean] will give him something, the person will go away happy. The person will just go off without a problem.
Education
In the cities, perhaps, there is always a lack of freedom, and then the concentration of people. It is because they’ve been neglected in schools. They were kicked out the door. The common thread of education broke down quite early in their teens. They are left to their own devices, and therefore they don’t choose the right path – but they don’t know. That’s it, they can’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 on the one hand, you mustn’t steal from your parents, because kids, they can steal from your parents or 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 summer camp 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 simple, ha! It evolved a lot in the fities, oh yes, after the war.
When I was born, like Jean, we didn’t have electricity, we didn’t have running water. After that arrived the equipment, especially in the countryside. We worked with horses, oxen. After tractors arrived, it was all modernized. It’s gone terriblly fast, going to school…. For example, we had to do 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 on the modern era … 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 way. I never say who I vote for. I would have voted twice rather than none. Every election, I vote, but never would I will say that this one person is better than another. Never! I was a shop steward at a hospital. I spent two days on Berder Island, at a meeting for the hospital.
I was a staff steward. After that, the delegates had to be elected. I was passing by, 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 says, you are the delegate.
You don’t have to vote for yourself. The President of the Republic must not vote for himself. 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.
Jean Guillemet, competition 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. I liked cycling, but I didn’t practice in competition, but I liked cycling, and he was a fanatic.
I recall memories of racing with Jacques Pillait, Raymond Poullidor, among others.
I was with Morio Morio, but he was walking.
Yes, Jean-Claude, yes, there was Gugen Morvan from Lorient, Merthier, Germain and then the other one, Go from Combourg and Dafnette from Morlaix. I did Stella, I did the Birs 33 and Terreaux. Étienne de Clanche, he was with me. He crashed, I heard, I waited for him, we went in front of you and I let him go without noticing.
The Tour of Normandy, when you were eighteen? Yes, I was not eighteen because we had Lily of the Valley, it was in May at that time. May Day. At the age of forty-four, I went to Missilac, but in the meantime.
Did you leave the circuit? I always worked, we had to, I had a big family and we had no money.
There are fewer and fewer volunteers… It’s hard to get volunteers, huh? – There are fewer people. Don’t you agree? That’s right. When you realize they spend more money after the finish than for the runners. Did you see in Guégans, how much it costs? The meal afterwards? For all the volunteers. It costs more than the race itself. People are demoralized, disgusted. Why do so much advertising when it costs more than the race? That means the price of meals and stuff is 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 the Morbihan circuit. This implies that you are obliged to go through partners from the Conseil General, and private partners who will give a hand so that the race continues. And they, on the other hand, it is not too bad either because the money they give, they get this money back through local advertising, newspaper, TV. And then word of mouth. We talk about those who were there. Those not there are forgotten.
The bike racing party
It’s my farm worker! Ah! He has his heart in his hand.
You see here, we play boules, ah, it’s a bowling alley? Yes, I see, the first balls [musique d’accordéon]have arrived.
Because he’s alien to me, he never drinks. When we rode with him, he ran on foot at 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 made second at Half-Moon in Pontivy, it was a great Jean, he is someone great…
We are at an atypical site what! Special, original. Two people came here. I spent the afternoon almost with them, I told him where there were two menhirs. I told Pierre here 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
But he didn’t say a film about this or that. Yes, I trust the filmmaker.
Like in a funnel me. No, you don’t know I died, I went 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 better. He had put it on jacks: he had probably badly chocked the wheels. The jacks had slipped and the car collapsed on him. He really had to be strong to resist, especially his skull, because the car had fallen on it. He was probably stuck under the car, he had to have been incredibly strong. Firefighters pulled him out of there. They then took him to the emergency room at Plouharnel hospital.
They hadn’t made me in Plouharmel and then, direction Pont Chailloux. I arrived at Pont Chailloux, two doctors were waiting for me. And seeing the damage observed on the x-ray. He tells me that you will be operated on tonight, finally it was the following morning at two o’clock. Were you conscious? Yes… He had been transferred to Rennes where he spent a good month, well, half the time in a coma practically.
So finally I was told that you could not be operated on, and I stayed in Pont Chailloux for two weeks without being operated on. Without an operation, without anything.
Then I said to the little girl, if you come, Noémie, I will put your name on the fountain. So her mum came to see me with her two kids, Noémie. Hold on, this is the fountain I’m building in her name. She said Noémie, if you want to pee, there is a loo in the next room… next to Pepe’s bed. I heard that. As I had fire in my body, in the night, I thought, there’s water in there. After, I managed to splash two or three flushes all over my body, everywhere cold [une cloche sonne]water.
Ah, Mr Guillemet, can’t you hear the bells? The bells, oh, it’s curious that he heard a sound, dong-dong, for half a day. And that he was the only one to hear it, he talked about it to the doctor and to his neighbor.
The fire left my body, I don’t know how. His previous psyche, his… I don’t know if he was a believer, I don’t know. I say if, you here… Ah! He told me that it came 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, that he had forgotten to extinguish his bells.
Because when I used to go to the menhirs, there was a resonance, an echo of the voices. I’d like that because when I came back to myself, I heard bells [musique].
Noémie’s Fountain
So, the water rose recently over there? Yes, that’s why I’m building another one on the other side because with the rain, 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 piece of string. 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, they cross over. But it is deep. It’s eight meters away.
Can I do that too? Yes. It turns in the opposite direction here? That’s right, it’s as he says and yes, it turns with you – yes.
– Well the springs, are 3 m deep. 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 lots of things, a stone cross.
-Then at the entrance of the fountain, her name will be on it.
-Ah, the star! Well, I went to see the fountain… because I named her Noémie 2004.
Noémie, I told her that maybe his film will go around the world, if it’s a great film, why not? I tell you, you are the strongest of the strong for having followed your idea with Noémie. I tell you, I’m going to build you a fountain.
And I told him that the (film about) the fountain might go around the world, jokingly, and you can write to your philosopher grandpa, that you have a fountain in your name.
Living Simply
This is my dream, as I have often said. I have a house like many others, but I would like to live, it’s funny, in a room, just with a fireplace, a table, and the bed next to it. My dream, yes, but I will not achieve it. – As it was before?
– Yes, they sold their farm, they were basically sharecroppers on the farms. And my grandparents bought everything from them Kermaro, Kerivallan was part of it, even Désir’s place.
I don’t know who it all belonged to. 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 large farm.
A large farm? That was enough for a family of five children and the couple, oh yes. Did we live well with that? Well, we did it 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’s 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 we 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 had fun, it’s incomparable.
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 that’s the thing now. We say money, if you have, it attracts money, you will have more. And when you manage to get them, you create companies, you also employ people.
We talk about the economy, about salary, happiness is… We no longer talk about 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 cereals in France and in countries where (the harvest) had worked well to store them and wait for a shortage to be able to sell at the highest possible price.
It’s true, it’s a bit dishonest, it’s a little too much to take advantage of… the misfortune of others.
I’ve heard, that’s it, there’s a shortage of hay. There is no shortage at all.
It wasn’t in Rennes or I don’t know, they took the opportunity to sell hectares of Achères like that, but at crazy prices. That’s to say, taking advantage. 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 at the outset.
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 a 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… They compete with each other 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 chores like peeling potatoes, we had a casserole in the field to make food. I don’t know, I thought it was good and right. When we went to do the threshing, it was the same.
Like a party! The bowl? So some came home half baked, almost everyone.
What made people leave the farm? Yes, it’s true that the guys, they didn’t stay. Everything has evolved, we also wanted to see what was happening elsewhere. The young left to work, to have a little money too, pocket money, to be able to do what they wanted.
– 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 were surviving, but we didn’t have any ambition either… Today, in society, everything is calculated to…
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 have of course. 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 must be a happy medium.
We would live in large 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
Mum 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.
Le 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?
Because there were no longer any jobs. What is a lumberjack going to do? 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 clean, there would be no need to use bulldozers or tractors when there is a fire.
Because before, there were embankments that prevented the water from flowing away directly. It was less stressful for people. Because now they have irrigation, when there is too much water, the water goes back into a reservoir and if it is too dry, a moisture system starts up. The machine goes on automatically, then it’s watered. If we cut down too many trees, if we grow too much, with today’s systems we can have calves and cows galore. It’s unfortunate to say it, but…
Chickens are the same, they can lay so many 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 than Sarkozy, to 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 farm hand isn’t going to earn that in his life. It is still not logical, because the one who earns billions earns it with other people’s money. It’s not his money. That’s almost theft.
Associations are the consequences of a breach of responsibility.
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 for an association, 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 or 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? What should I say, for the nuns. 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, was a country 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 it’s up to smart people to put them straight. There have been earthquakes, there has been everything on the menhirs, on the megaliths. They fell over.
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 has played a big role in these 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 pork, meat, a few chickens, but we still bought and had sugar.
All this was cultivated, it was all 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 [nineteen] fourteen, in 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 came back to my godmother.
Studies in 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 Brittany cultural centre takes note of such a wonderful site, and that UNESCO, which already spoke about it 15 days ago in the newspapers, 180 countries, will undoubtedly own this place. So we take advantage of it before. And thank you.
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