“Come on, let’s not give up!” Up, down. Again ! Up, down. We continue! » With Stéphie, Monday mornings are sporty. Including when his students have osteoarthritis and a walker to get around. Sitting in a circle, the participants listen attentively to the instructions of the teacher, responsible for health prevention within the Siel bleu association. Faces grimace a little, muscles begin to heat up. Marie holds on to her chair to lift her legs. His neighbor Marie-Claude grumbles for form: “Normally, on Mondays, even the chickens don’t lay eggs! » Laughter from the assembly.
Such is life at L’Orée du bourg, a beguinage located in Smarves, near Poitiers, in Vienne. Inspired by the places that housed the beguines, these pious secular women who lived in communities in the Middle Ages, this type of inclusive housing for seniors has enjoyed growing success over the past ten years. Managed by the Vivre en béguinage association, a pioneer in the sector in France, L’Orée du bourg was inaugurated at the end of May 2024. 17 residents aged 65 to 90 live here, “five dogs, two cats, and a turtle”specifies Anaïs Cabaret, coordinator of social and shared life.
Village miniature
From the outside, L’Orée du village looks like an ordinary hamlet. Around ten houses planted a few meters from each other, large rectangles of greenery, dogs barking as visitors arrive. One of the particularities is the single-storey house erected in the center of this miniature village. It houses the conviviality room, a place open seven days a week and 24 hours a day – this is where the gym class took place this morning, here also where the raclette will take place the next day, “season premiere”Anaïs joyfully proclaims. “If you had come this summer, you would have seen all the vegetables in the vegetable garden, says the 28-year-old young woman, former gerontology facilitator. There is also the pétanque court, the locals played there a lot when the weather was nice. Some were in isolation before coming. Here, they find the neighborhood life they once knew. »
Arrival of Bernadette and Marie-Claude in the conviviality room. / Frederic Petry for La Croix L’Hebdo
Chantal is still acclimatizing. When she arrived in July, upset by the recent sale of her house, she initially thought she wouldn’t stay. “I loved my countryside far from everything, explains this petite woman, brown bob and round glasses on her nose. At first, it was a shock to find myself there, without my big trees, she confides, scanning her living room, the entrance to which is teeming with plants. “We have to digest all this. » And learn to deal with other residents.
“A small company”
To preserve harmony, Anaïs organizes a meeting on living well together every week. “The people who live here have chosen to live in a community but while maintaining their independence. This is not a shared accommodation »insists the coordinator of social and shared life, who is responsible for clearing up any possible conflicts. “It’s a small company. There are the little leaders and those who let themselves be carried away, the discreet ones, the sociable ones. »
Marie-Claude, 82 years old, belongs to this last category. Once the gym class is over, she opens her door to anyone for an “aperitif”. Pate toast and walnut wine made by him. Like all the houses in the beguinage, hers has all the necessary comfort and safety: seat in the shower so you don’t slip, light equipped with a motion detector in the bedroom to prevent nighttime falls, air conditioning, etc. “How nice I am here, repeats Marie-Claude. I have my old armchair and my two dogs. I feel at home. »
She also left behind a big house and lots of memories. Nothing to scare this fighter who, in the 1990s, had to leave El Salvador at war and her job in the agri-food industry overnight. “I arrived in France with two children, three suitcases and 500 dollars”she summarizes. Of the “Americas”she says she has retained a certain sense of solidarity. “I’ve never been into every man for himself.” So every morning, Marie-Claude does her little watch, checking that her neighbors, Paulette and Bernadette, have raised their blinds. “Neighbors help each other. There is a family side,” she appreciates. So, Nadine regularly takes Marie-Odile to the supermarket. Gérard promised Chantal that he would look after Gusto, her cat, while she celebrated Christmas in Paris.
Everyone hopes to end their lives here, autonomous but not alone. “I will move to the cemetery! », says Marie, looking like nothing. Marc, who came from Aix-en-Provence with his wife Jacqueline, is also thinking about it. “We are at the terminus”he smiles. Their turn will come, they are pretty calm about it. The taboo subject is elsewhere and is written in five letters: Ehpad.
Moderate rents
“I know there’s one nearby but I’d rather not think about it,” sweeps Marie-Claude. Same pushback effect for Chantal. “I visited friends who went there. It was horrible. We put you in a room and that’s it. There’s nothing happy about it.” she said, turning her head from one side to the other to indicate her opposition. In her old days, Chantal had never really thought about it, “until I saw people leaving around me, sometimes younger. It makes you think…” She discovered the beguinage on television, “a report on France 3”, and she said to herself ” why not ? “. “Financially, my retirement did not allow me to afford a decent apartment. »
From the outside, L’Orée du village looks like an ordinary hamlet. / Frederic Petry for La Croix L’Hebdo
This is another advantage of the beguinage: the moderate rents; €488 for a two-room apartment of 55 m2, €638 for a three-room apartment of 68 m2. Much cheaper than a retirement home – at least €1,800 per month – or than accommodation in a serviced residence, where the options are à la carte. At the edge of the village, activities – gym, sophrology, animal mediation, sewing, etc. – most often cost a symbolic €1. “But contrary to what one might think, it is not an alternative to the nursing home, because it is not medicalized, insists Anaïs. When the loss of autonomy becomes too great, the model no longer works. » The beguinage is therefore intended to be a “third way”, between ordinary housing and institutional accommodation. Ideal in the eyes of Marie-Claude, still in good shape despite two strokes. “I even took up aquagym. Hopefully it lasts! »