They arrived there one day in November. “The worst month of the year” to test their ability to live in the countryside or not. Mathilde had lived in Paris for almost twenty years and her arrival in the capital to study journalism. His companion Jason spent the first thirty years of his life there. A childhood in the Val-d’Oise then an apartment bought with his lover in Asnières-sur-Seine. In 2021, Anna’s arrival turned everything upside down. The small glass of wine on the terrace after work has become rarer. Sharing the only bedroom in the 45 m² apartment is more complicated. Their daughter will not have known life in Paris for long, which she left before blowing out her first candle.
In November, the trio put down their suitcases in Guillac, a small village in Morbihan located a few kilometers from Ploërmel. A radical but carefully thought-out change of life. “The first thing that struck me was the light. In Paris, it really never gets dark. When we arrived here, at 5 p.m., it was pitch black, as if the day was over,” says Mathilde.
First day when the deckchairs are unfolded
This change of life, they had been thinking about it for several years. The Covid-19 was obviously an accelerator but the desire was already there. A former sound engineer, Jason had started a career in IT to find work more easily in the provinces. Mathilde preferred to leave her job as a journalist to launch her activity as a videographer for artisans in Morbihan. Cautious, the couple first opted for a rental house to test their new life. “In Guillac, we were very well received. In the morning, I went to work at the media library. They quickly offered to open it for me in the afternoon when I hadn’t asked for anything,” laughs Mathilde. “Here, there are a lot fewer people, but the link is easily created. We are familiar with the baker, we know her first name, ”engages Jason. “There is a simplicity in human relationships. In Paris, you always feel like you don’t have time. In the countryside, the relationship to time is not the same”, adds Mathilde.
As spring rolls around, the neo-rural family begins to enjoy the joys of having a quiet garden. When we go to visit them, they have just taken out their deckchairs for the first time. Anna frolics on all fours in the tall grass and has fun picking daisies. Behind, the sky is glowing as the sun sets, offering a wide view of a rolling landscape dotted with fields. Along the roads, the narcissus are in bloom. “I am very excited about our new life. But it’s very quiet, you have to prepare for it,” recognizes Mathilde, for whom the winter has sometimes been a bit long. Regrets ? “None,” they reply. The proof: five months after their arrival, the couple has just committed to buying a house in Caden, a small village located between Redon and Rochefort-en-Terre. As for the rental, the fight was fierce to find this property, which has become very popular. “We’re not the only ones who want to come here, it seems. We are also somewhat responsible for this situation, ”recognize Mathilde and Jason.
The price of gasoline, a new concern for the couple
Since arriving in Brittany, the couple has had to deal with a new situation: car addiction. Their small house in a hamlet several kilometers from the village does not allow them to reach the shops on foot. “The car for everything is inconvenient. We had not realized this constraint. Before, we did everything on foot,” admits Jason. Three times a week, he goes to Rennes to work, about two hours by road round trip. “Before, I didn’t worry about the price of gasoline. Now I look every time I pass a station.” To limit their dependence on the car, the family chose to buy a house close to the town and the shops.
While waiting to move in, the couple suffers like millions of French people from the meteoric inflation of the price of fuel, which affects their purchasing power: what they save in rent, they partly spend on gasoline. An unexpected change that is not likely to upset his voting intentions, despite the multiple positions taken by political parties on the way to the Elysée. Two weeks before the first round of the presidential election, Jason is already set on his candidate. “But I recognize that I am more attentive to discussions around fuel prices. It’s not an obsession, but it questions me. Mathilde, she still hesitates. “My political considerations have not changed because we moved, especially on the climate. But the war in Ukraine plays a role, I am sensitive to it. I want to see how the candidates position themselves”.
When the freshness of the Breton spring begins to be felt, Anna and her parents are preparing to return to their house. In a little over two weeks, they will all go to vote in Guillac for the first and perhaps the last time in their lives. But it is in Brittany that their future will be written, regardless of the name of the future president of the country. At the time of storing the deckchairs for the night, the couple holds the same observation: “We do not realize at all that the election is already there. “The disconnecting power of the Morbihan countryside? Or maybe the strangeness of this presidential campaign.