In Brittany, more than one in two young people live in rural areas.
In France, only Bourgogne-Franche-Comté does better.
The campaign seems to be attracting families who, however, are trying not to stray too far from services and jobs.
In Montauban-de-Bretagne, young people seem to have found a good balance between rural life and urban proximity.
The small town is deserted on this rainy Wednesday. Only a small dog leaves its shed to bark at me. With my 37 and a half years (it counts) and my hair a bit graying, I may be too old for him. It must be said that the pug lives in a particularly young town. We are in La Chapelle-du-Lou-du-Lac, in Brittany. In this town of 1,100 inhabitants located thirty minutes by car from Rennes, the average age is 36, and 30% of residents are under 18. In the region, it is not the only town to know how to retain its young people. In Brittany, 51% of people under 24 live in the countryside, according to an INSEE study released on Tuesday. In France, only Bourgogne-Franche-Comté does better. Proof that young people still appreciate rurality and do not always migrate to urban centres.Even if she prefers not to stray too far from it.
When she took over the bar and the grocery store in the town, Elodie Gicquel expected to welcome “a rather elderly population”. A month and a half after the reopening of the only business in La Chapelle-du-Lou-du-Lac, she makes a very different observation. “At the grocery store, most of my customers are between 30 and 40 years old. Children and teenagers come very often, they come by to buy cakes or sweets when they are on the playground next door,” explains the 36-year-old manager. If it landed here, it is partly thanks to the town hall, which bought the business to save it by offering it for lease-management. “Without commerce, there is no life. This is where people meet. We felt that the inhabitants were waiting for it, ”explains the mayor of the town, Patrick Herviou.
Find online our entire study on #young people in #rural settings in #Brittany ➡️https://t.co/oYel5A6LFx https://t.co/DtUsAOOdgh
— Insee Bretagne (@InseeBretagne) January 19, 2022
The first city councilor receives us without an appointment in the municipal council chamber, which he has been in charge of since 2008. When he was elected, Patrick Herviou managed a population of around 600 inhabitants.
Fourteen years later, La Chapelle-du-Lou-du-Lac has nearly 1,100 people, a third of whom are not old enough to vote.
Proof that rurality is still popular.
“Our big advantage is that we are very close to the dual carriageway, so it's easy for people to come here.
Land is not too expensive.
When you open a housing estate, it finds takers right away,” he explains.
Listening to him, this is less true in the small towns located a little further from the RN12.
Rurality yes, but not isolation.
A region made up of small towns
In thirty minutes, its constituents are at the gates of Rennes and the main employment areas. But the town is not completely dependent on the Breton capital. 5 km away, the small town of Montauban-de-Bretagne offers all the necessary services for families but also work, a cinema, shops, sports facilities, two colleges, a high school. “We are too good here. We go to football by bike, we have all our friends. It's the good life, ”slip Elliot and Faustin, both 12 years old. According to Jean-Marc Lardoux, author of the INSEE study on the subject, Brittany has the particularity of presenting an important network of small towns which breaks the isolation of rural municipalities: "Even in the countryside, we 'is never very far from the city, services'.
For the past ten years, Montauban-de-Bretagne and its surroundings have been attracting more and more city dwellers who want to leave the city and its tumult. “I wanted to leave to work in the countryside, to open my business in a smaller town,” says Amanullah. Four years ago, he opened his Gim Gim Kebab in Montauban, after years of juggling drunkenness and fights on rue de la Soif, where he had his previous restaurant. “There are a lot of young people here, more and more restaurants opening. It's dynamic,” explains the restaurant owner. Some even come from even further afield. “We are two hours by train from Paris here. My husband works there, my children live there, it's not a problem”, testifies Azelina, who opened a shop in her name thirty-three years ago in this street.“It's a small town, but we have everything we need. And then there is the forest right next to it. It's ideal, ”slips the shopkeeper. The Covid-19 epidemic and the search for a green life have made the town a very popular place. Accommodation has become in high demand here.
In Montauban-de-Bretagne, those under 18 represent more than 20% of the 5,000 inhabitants. These young people often leave to study, but many of them then return “to the country” to live in a house, with a garden. “Here, we all know each other a little bit, there is a good atmosphere, you can chat with everyone,” testifies Melwen, sitting on a sofa in the youth area of the town. At 16, he had to decide to leave Montauban to follow his butcher's CAP at Ker Lann, a campus located in Bruz, a stone's throw from Rennes. “I don't really like going to town. Too much noise, too many people. It's nice once in a while, but not for too long. Seated by her side, Timothée tempers. He admits to being eager to join his boarding school in the Breton capital next year:
“We're good here, we don't feel like we're in the countryside. But, sometimes, we get a little bored, there is a lack of activities. I can't wait to be alone, to get started in professional life,” he slips before turning on the Playstation in the youth area for a game of basketball.
He lives “out in the bush”, like his friend Ewan, who is sitting next door, tackles.
But Timothée has the particularity of having a scooter, which gives him independence from his parents.
Not everyone is so lucky.
“Here, the concern is mobility.
Those who don't have a scooter and who don't live in town have a harder time coming to see friends,” explains Léa, facilitator at the intermunicipal youth centre.
These probably suffer more from the isolation imposed by the countryside.
Before pushing the door of the youth space exit, we asked the small group of teenagers what was missing in their town.
Their response ?
"A synthetic football pitch and a McDo".
The youth of the towns or the countryside obviously have the same preoccupations.
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