Wednesday 22 May 2013

On Friday the 5th of April, we posted some photos and very few comments about that farmhouse museum we visited earlier.
Here are more comments made since then :

1. I was surprised by :
- the very small low-thatch-roofed houses made of mud, with very small doors and not many windows,
- people were quite poor and led a very simple life, The few animals they bred were their only wealth,
- people had two outfits only : one for working days, the other one that they would wear on Sundays. They were warm long-sleeved clothes, even the summer ones !
- people didn't have a holiday,
- they couldn't wash easily,
- they would warm them up by the fire in the winter, but they didn't burn wood as they didn't have any in the marshes, they burnt cowpats !!!!

2. Being a teenager at that time :
- dark warm clothes, and only a few of them ! They couldn't get changed very often : they had no money to buy new ones, no washing-machine... They had to take care of their belongings !
- meeting their mates was very rare, almost impossible ! If they were lucky enough to go to school, they would stop going from the age of 12 and work on the farm with their parents.
- at school, they would learn to speak proper French ; their parents spoke the local dialect. After leaving school at 12, they would slowly lose their French again... Later, when boys went to the military service, writing letters to their parents could be very hard work... They didn't remember well how to read or write !

3. What's left nowadays ?
- some houses called "bourrines" still exist,
- some elderly people still wear traditional dark clothes -but very few,
- some can talk about their past,
- there are 4 traditional fairs in the summer in Challans, when people act as if they were living in the early twenties : you can then get to know about their music, food, school, weddings, etc...
- agriculture, but the farms are much bigger than they used to be...

Next Friday, we're having a traditional music and dancing workshop. We will talk to you about it soon.

Delphina, Laure, Charlotte, Marie, Julie, Thomas, Antoine, Marie

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