Intentional Communities in France

The origins of intentional communities in France go back to the time when Christian monastic communities started, in the early centuries of Christianity (c. fourth century CE). During the 1800s, Charles Fourier, an influential French thinker, created the concept of phalanstères—communities developing harmoniously through the work freely chosen by its members. During the late 1960s, many intentional communities developed in France, influenced in part by the American “hippie” communes. Like their American counterparts, members of French communes wanted to create a new way of living, promoting “free love” and a lifestyle completely different from conventional family life. By the 1980s, however, most of these communities had disappeared.

In the twenty-first century, the situation for intentional communities in France presents a paradox. On the one hand, there is a fairly large number of ecovillages being built, along with a growing number of people interested in the ecovillage concept. On the other hand, the number of already-established communities is decreasing; those communities are experiencing growing difficulties, and only a very small number are succeeding in implementing their goals. During the 1970s, there were many intentional communities all over the country, especially in some areas such as L' Ardèche or the Cévennes mountains in southern France, or the Pyrénées mountains on the FrenchSpanish border. In the 1980s and 1990s, this number decreased markedly.

Several factors have been suggested to explain this decline. First, there is the political factor. In 1981, the socialist François Mitterand was elected president, and the rise of the French Socialist Party raised the hopes of many people for a change in the sociopolitical status quo. Insofar as socialism was becoming mainstream, the alternative movement became much weaker and was even considered outdated. The expression soixantehuitard (“sixty-eighter”), referring to those people who embraced the utopian ideals of the 1960s, came to be used very ironically.

Second, there is the fact that the movement against groups perceived to be religious sects, which began in the 1990s and received much attention in the media and from political parties and the Catholic Church, has had a negative impact on intentional communities.

[Page 717]Third, new French laws pertaining to building permits, which went into effect in 1986, made it increasingly difficult to build outside of extant cities, towns, and villages. The land ownership statute for people who want to buy together is also not really adapted to the goals of communities and ecovillages.

In addition, many people who are interested in the ecovillage movement have been disappointed in France's branch of the Ecovillage Network. Réseau Français des EcoVillages (RFEV) was created in 1997, but by people with dreams and plans to create communities and ecovillages rather than by people who were actually living in communities. Although some 400 people came to RFEV's first meeting, many lost interest because it represented “virtual,” rather than real, ecovillages. In an attempt to address that problem, RFEV decided in August 2001 that the coordination of the network would be held only by existing ecovillage-type groups. Since that time, several “ecohamlets” (somewhat smaller than ecovillages), including Bio-Lopin (in the French portion of the Jura mountains, near the border with Switzerland) and Epidaure (in the Swiss portion of the Jura mountains), have joined the network. Members hope to motivate and invite other French communities to join in order to have more diversity, and to be stronger and more representative.

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