THE FRENCH TERROIR IS TOO PRECIOUS TO BE LEFT TO POLITICIANS
The French word terroir cannot be translated. It is a uniquely Frenchconcept, expressing the rich diversity of the country, in all the aspects ofits particular genius. It can be loosely defined as regional, thus in aparticular accent, in a language, in food and wine, in artistic expression andin architecture. France was unitedin the 15th century by King Louis XI. However it retained a diversity in thisunity even if the northern langue d’oil took over the southern langued’oc under the reign of Francis I.Thus the newly-created French language marks the beginning of centralised Stateculture.
French literature retains the flavour of the terroir and reflects its rich diversity.The Loire Valley sung by the poets Ronsard and Joachim duBellay is different from George Sand’s Berry. As is Maurice Genevoix’s Sologneto the Provence of Frédéric Mistral, of Alphonse Daudet, of JeanGiono and of Maurice Pagnol, Pierre Loti’s Bretagne, François Mauriac’sBordelais and Colette’s Burgundy. All have in common the love of France and ofthe richness of its culture. In this spirit Frédéric Mistral, the Provençalpoet created the Félibridge in 1864 to defend French traditionalregional culture, in particular the langue d’oc. The Félibridge was inspired by the Toulouse JeuxFloraux, a poetical competition created in 1324 by seven troubadours.The Jeux Floraux are the ancestor of all European learnedsocieties, anticipating the French Academy created in 1635 by CardinalRichelieu. In 1694 Louis XIV gave the Jeux Floraux the title of academy, retained to this day. But the aim of the JeuxFloraux and of the Félibridge, the etymology of which contains the word livre, book, and libre, free, is to give wings to poetry and free rein toliterature through the native inspirational heritage. Not to codify thelanguage as does the French Academy. Thus two opposite tendency are confrontedat the very heart od French culture. On the one hand Northern France centeredaround Paris, turned towards the Atlantique, on the other SouthernMediterranean France, opened to the influences of Africa and of the NearEast. The two confronted eachother in the bloody conflict of the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th century.
In this inherent tension French genius finds itsexpression. On the one hand is freedom of spirit won through culture inparticular through literature. On the other is the centralisation of cultureand its control by the State. In the former is expressed the centuries-oldknowlege of rural France and the various influences which moulded it. Thus theCeltic soul of Brittany close to Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In theLoire Valley reigns an Italian influence since the 14th century through Gastond’Orléans’s mother, Valentina Visconti, the Italian campaigns and the court ofCatherine and Mary Medici at Blois. Burgundy was under the influence ofFlanders and of the Habsburg Holy Germanic Empire. In Provence lingers on thememory of Greece, Rome and Italy. While the English influence is preeminent inNormandy, Anjou and Aquitaine, domains of Eleanor of Aquitaine who became Queenof England. She was a free-spirit, a learned and cultured woman, who fell inlove with the Middle East when she went on the Second Crusade with her firsthusband, the French King Louis VII. She brought back to France the orientaltaste for lavish ans sensuous luxury, as well as the courtly love poetry whichflourished at the Muslim courts of Bagdad and Cordoba. The French troubadoursemulated it at her court and sungthe fin amor, courtlylove. Eleanor of Aquitaine brilliantly achieved this magical equilibriumbetween North and South, East and West. It can be found at given privilegedhistorical moments when the best of French genius reaches its climax.Conversely the rise of Paris and Versailles in the 17th century lead to theinfluence on the arts of centralised government for political reasons . Itmeant that the landed aristocracy’s supremacy on regional artistic life wasdeliberately destroyed to weaken its power. Traditional beliefs and customswere ridiculed while court manners became the nec plus ultra of fashion. French cultural output was thusimpoverished paradoxically at the very time when the Italian 16th century idealof arcadia, thelost paradise of a classical golden age, was inspiring poets, artists andmusicians. It can be found in the pastoral novel Astrée of Honoré d’Urfé, 1607, the idyllic and nostalgicpaintings of Watteau, the music of Lulli, to the idealised bucolic setting ofthe Petit Trianon at Versailles where Marie-Antoinette played shepherdess. Inthe 19th century a renewed realism, the sense of the picturesque, and increasedinterest in history and archeology spurred on writers, artists, poets andmusicians to look anew at the national heritage. The great tradition of theFrench novel is deeply indebted to provincial lore and customs, as are operassuch as Gounod’s Mireilleinspired by the eponymous poem of Frédéric Mistral.
The terroir isa fertile ground where for centuries varied foreign influences have mouldedinto a harmonious whole alanguage, a local culture expressed in ritualised customs, all defining aparticular folklore so deeply imbedded in tradition that it becomes difficultto discern its various components. It is the expression of originality, fantasyand diversity in a formated modern world where all has to be the same. Frenchgastronony is one of its best manifestations, valued and praised all over theworld. This culinary tradition of excellence rests on natural fresh productsgrown locally. The love and care of generations of dedicated horticulturistsand vinegrowers has contributed to the renown of an abundant natural treasuretrove. Inspired cooks have combined particular flavours, textures and coloursin original creations redolent of a particular terroir. It constitutes the very heart of French culture.Around a table where each particular dish is matched by a particular wine, hasgrown and developped a characteristically French art, recently registered atthe UNESCO intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Ironically thisdistinction has come at a time when the political and social environmentdecries the very notion of terroir, imposing upon it pejorative connotations.
These sordid debates seem to ignore collective memory andany logical sense. As the time for election is coming up, each political partyseeks to attract countrymen’s votes, those very peasants so despised afterNicolas Sarlozy’s victory. One of his advisers expressed this contempt : Wedo not like that France ruled by bagpipes and berets ! True enough it is not the urbanised Frenchterritory represented by Neuilly and the Greater Paris, lorded over by Sarkozyand his clique. Despite the world financial crisis, now a world social andpolitical crisis since the Arab revolutionary Spring, they want to create ahuge megalopolis from Paris to Nantes in order to assert their power and fulfiltheir ambition. France is ten years behind in this senseless race forurbanisation which destroys the green belt, agricultural lands and ruralvillages to profit banks and multinationals. It is not France’s fate to becovered with hideous skyscrapers. It would be far better to regenerate itsdwindling industry in opposing the relocation of French industries abroad. Thisrelocation policy is a new form of colonialism destined to underpay localworkers instead for the benefit of shareholders, instead of providing work forthe French work force. The vast, underpopulated rural France needs to be regenerated.Essential services cut by austerity reforms must be restored to encourage anenewed population and local work created. Time has come to stop this shamelesspolitical abuse of the terroir to genuinely allow rural France not only to survive but to thrive.The destructive spin of the present Sarkozy government playing on socialdivision in order to assert its power and gain votes in 2012, iscounterproductive in its search for the national unity the executive powerclaims as its aim. It brings back sombre memories of rampant racism andantisemitism, never far from the French collective psyche. It would be morerewarding to use this concept of terroir pedagogically to create a true national identity.But it would not serve the purpose of ignorant and unscrupulous politicians, devoid of any form of culture,who use the national heritage in a destructive spin to their own personal ends.Recently arrived migrants could find in the richness of French traditional terroirprinciples and values to make themproud to have chosen to become French.
France as a nation has to find a renewed pride in itspast, in its great rural tradition. It has recently been ridiculed under thefalse pretense that French territory is wholly urnbanised. It is a lie spreadby a pseudo intellectual parisian elite to be denounced as totally perverse. Ina world increasingly threatened by starvation and shortages of all sorts,France is uniquely endowed with human and agricultural resources to meet itsown needs and still have enough products to export. It can thus becomeindependent from costly imports from faraway countries, dispendiouslyprohibitive in energy and highly polluting. National health would benefit fromthe consumption of fresh home-grown products, rich in nutrional value, in mineralsand vitamins. This French tradition of local products of the terroir has a long-standing history and has been admiredby nutrionists all over the world. Globalisation, essential to the earthsurvival, has to go hand in hand with the agricultural autonomy of the variouscountries of the world and of their regions. A more reasonable and responsibleattitude to consumerism has to be endorsed. Only then will the awful spectre of starvation be held atbay and the abomination of the poor countries’ exploitation by the rich ones bestopped. The former have been deprived of their traditional centuries-oldagricultural resources to the profit of the latter, and the greedy, selfish anddestructive interests of neoliberalism. Speculation on essential food productssuch as wheat and rice must stop and be declared illegal. Asian and Africancountries must receive the surpluses of the rich Western countries, from theStates and European Community, now wasted. Only then will be borne a greater social justice, theone claimed by the Arab revolutionary Spring. This Arab Spring is a cautionary warning to the greatnations of the world. It is the precursor of a new order of things to come. Theworld powers must hear its pressing message and respond to it with urgency. Ifthey do not, worldwide human, political and economic catastrophes willdevastate the planet. They have already started.
Without France the world stands alone, said Gabriele d’Annunzio. The terroir’s common sense must prevailed. France must becomea privileged experimental ground, an example to the whole world, in renewingwith an ancestral agricultural tradition based on natural laws. It has survivedin the art of the farmers, the horticulturists, the vinegrowers, thebeekeepers. It consists of using nature and its resources with respect andhumility, following the rythms of the seasons and of crops alternation. To put science at the service ofman and of nature, not vice-versa. And man, his fate and survival must takeprecedence over the greed and cupidity of capitalism, brutally raping nature.All humanism has disappeared from this rampant materialism. In order to achievean equilibrium between man and his environment, the aims of modern ecology, apolitical will must be active in a humanist vision. Only when there will be apolitician in France with enough courage and integrity, a keen sense of socialjustice and responsibility, will it be possible to see flourish again the terroirand its rich culture. It is aprecious heritage and in allowing it to survive in harmony, the ancientarcadian dream of a golden age will be achieved and enlighten the world, givingit a renewed hope.
MONIQUE RICCARDI-CUBITT
www.arcadiamundi.eu