Five years after Covid, Paris region dwellers who fled toward nature aren't looking back
NewsLockdown heightened the desire of many Paris region residents to relocate for more space and greenery. While the flow has since slowed, many of them feel they made the right choice by taking advantage of new remote work opportunities and leaving the capital and its surroundings.
She left Paris "on a whim." The weekend after the first Covid-19, lockdown was lifted, in May 2020, Jessy, who asked not to give her real last name, fled her studio in the Charonne district of Paris to spend six days with a friend in the Perche area, to the west of the capital. Charmed, she suddenly said to herself, while at the wheel: "And why not?" During this short stay, she decided to visit a few houses. "I saw mine, in a hamlet near Authon-du-Perche. I made an offer," she said.
Jessy was 39 at the time, and had left her job in the events industry. She had never lived in the countryside before. "It was a challenge," she said. "I wanted to live this experience the rough way, to spend the winter here without a job, without knowing anyone. To start from scratch." She sold her 30-square-meter apartment in Paris and used the money to buy a 125-square-meter house with land.
Five years later, there's no question of her returning to the city, or even to a small town. However, her new life has its share of difficulties. Unable to find a job that matched her past work experience, Jessy set up her own business as a concierge managing Airbnb rentals, of which there are many in this region, less than two hours from Paris. She also obtained a professional diploma in cooking to become a home chef and supplement her income.
"In Perche, people from the Paris region like me are called 'accourus' ["those who arrived running"], because they come running when the weather's nice. When I visited my house, my neighbor's father said: 'The Parisian, she won't last a year,'" she recalled. While her integration in the hamlet went well at first, relations with the only other household living there year-round suddenly deteriorated. "He didn't accept the fact that his wife regularly spent time with me, or perhaps the fact that a lot of my friends came to see me," said Jessy. "For the past three years, we haven't spoken at all." She has just sold her house and moved to another hamlet nearby.
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