Jean-Luc Boujon // Photo credit: PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP 11:18 am, May 26, 2023

Every day, Europe 1 looks at an idea or a problem in your daily life. The desire for the countryside is more and more present among the French. And while they are more and more numerous to take the plunge, INSEE reveals this Friday that the travel time of rural people to go to work doubles in the space of 20 years.

Going to the countryside to escape noise, traffic and pollution: this is the dream of many French people. And since the Covid-19 crisis, more and more of them are trying to return to nature. But this change of life leads to longer travel times. In 20 years, it has even increased by half, according to an INSEE study. Rural people now drive an average of five kilometres longer than in the 2000s.

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Several hours lost per week

In Chambost-Allières, in the Rhône, many active people have come to settle. It must be said that this small village of 800 inhabitants has everything to please: a forest, its 11th century church and golden stone houses. A little paradise where Roxanne and Victor have just settled. Yet every day, Victor the husband, goes by car to work in Lyon, 45 kilometers away. "It makes an average of one hour of travel in the morning, and an hour in the evening. And that's every day," she told Europe 1.

"But hey, we bought a small house that we renovate because such a property close to Lyon, it's unimaginable. So, we found a small house of 70 square meters for 150,000 euros in golden stones and with 1,000 m2 of land. And we are very happy," says Roxanne.

"This is the price to pay"

The choice is the same for Sacha, 29, whose house has just been built. Her husband also works far away. "He works in Villefranche-sur-Saône, 25 kilometers from home. In the morning, it takes him 30 minutes to go to work and in the evening 45 minutes to return. So it's a sacrifice, but we prefer that and living in that framework rather than being five minutes from work and having the constraints we can have in the city. That's the price to pay," she said.

Similar situations, which are repeated throughout the territory and which allow small municipalities to be reborn. Proof of this, in Chambost-Allières, last year, a new class opened at the village primary school.