The small village is preparing for a big party. Around the church and its strange bulb of Byzantine inspiration, garlands have been strung. Traders and residents are busy cleaning their facades which will see thousands of people pass by this weekend. It is in this small town located a few kilometers south of Rennes that a great rave of rurality will be held this Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 July. For the second time in its existence, the town of Corps-Nuds welcomes its peers from Montéton, Poil, Folles, Longcochon, Coubisou or Arnac-la-Poste for the big gathering towns with burlesque and singsong names. This group, born twenty years ago, aims to unite French bleds with funny surnames for a large local market where accents and smells mingle. “It’s the France of mixtures!” A rural France that can talk to each other, understand each other, exchange. Here we find the fundamental values of living together. This is all the more important given the current situation,” asserts Alain Prigent.
Last summer, the mayor of Corps-Nuds (Ille-et-Vilaine) took over the presidency of the collective which brings together around fifty municipalities with funny names. “When I discovered the grouping, I was a little perplexed. And then I went to Vatan (Indre) in 2009. I immediately saw an atmosphere, values of simplicity, good nature, ”says the elected official, who arrived at Corps-Nuds in 1997 to leave the Paris region. Its commune is not the most famous of Rennes Métropole. But from the height of its 3,600 inhabitants, it has made a name for itself by playing its own. Each year, the elected official even receives requests from naturist associations wishing to organize their general meeting there. Quite a symbol! Are the inhabitants of Corps-Nuds modest? Are they proud of their surname? 20 minutes went to meet them to ask them.
“We don’t even realize”
Nathalie has lived in Corps-Nuds for twenty years. For her, as for all the inhabitants of the town that we met, this name no longer means anything to her. “We are so used to it. We don’t even realize that it can be funny. It makes the others laugh especially ”. When she has to say where she lives, the Cornusienne recognizes that she sometimes sees her interlocutors smile. “When I redid my passport, it made them laugh a lot”. At the Leriche bakery, it’s when they give out their email address that the owners make people smile. “When we tell them Corps-Nuds, they ask us to repeat. Some think of a joke, ”explains the boss. For several days, its staff has been struggling to produce the thousands of kouign amann that will be offered for sale on the local market. “The rally is talking about us, it’s a good thing! “. When the Norman couple bought the bakery ten years ago, they had fun thinking about bare body beans in the galettes des rois season. But he never dared.
In the small town, however, some dare to undress, posing in front of the entrance signs to the village. The less modest go so far as to post the photo on social networks. The less observant sometimes attack the panels by taking them on board as a souvenir. “It happens to us regularly. It’s not very funny for us because it costs the municipality money, ”admits Yvonnick David. Referent of the association which organizes the gathering, this assistant to the city knows all the possible jokes on the name of his commune: “often, people say to us: well then, you came dressed? We don’t even notice it anymore.”
“I had spent three days of madness”
The chosen one recognizes that it is the names of others that make him laugh. “When you go to Bouzillé or Vatan, they don’t understand why you’re laughing”. Matthieu spent all his youth at Corps-Nuds. It was when he went to college that he realized that his village could bring smiles. Although he no longer lives in the town, he keeps a very benevolent eye on the village where he grew up. Drowned in a few regional liqueurs, his memories of the gathering organized in 2011 remain intact. “I had spent three days of madness. It can make people smile, but we find ourselves linked with other municipalities. We meet, we talk, we laugh. There is a simplicity, a closeness that we find here”.
In this outskirts of Rennes, certain villages described as dormitory towns sometimes have difficulty in getting community life off the ground. At Corps-Nuds, there seems to be a core, a fabric that has been reinforced by the village’s membership of the national grouping. As in Loches, Latronche or Bellebrune, volunteers work every year to bring the name of their village to life. “We can go to sleep in all the municipalities just by saying that we come from Corps-Nuds! It’s incredible, it’s something that had been lost, ”says Yvonnick David. Around him, men are busy setting up the stands that will host the party. “All associations have trouble finding volunteers. We just talked about it around us and we had 250 people. This gathering unites us”. Messein, Simple or Saint-Pompon say the same thing. Many French municipalities would dream of experiencing the same dynamic. Unfortunately, they don’t have the right name.