After studying law in Toulouse (Occitanie), Julia, in her twenties, is delighted to return to her native Gers, even to spend evenings. “It’s true that I had an idea of the city, that it was perhaps going to move more than here, to see other people, and in the end, I feel better at home, recognizes the young woman. For the bars, here, “there’s only one, but that’s fine, she smiles. Everyone is there!”
Besides, her friend Lily, 19, finally feels much less isolated here. “There is a very family side that I find super interesting because everyone knows each other, we can discuss, there are exchanges”, she says.
“Building ties with people, I think it’s important and here, it’s still easier to do that.”
The Gers is however one of the departments with the lowest population density. But according to INSEE, which is based on data dating from 2018, 80.6% of young people under the age of 24 live in a rural town in Gers compared to around 21% in Hérault or Haute-Garonne. And this is one of the workhorses of Emmanuel Macron, traveling in Creuse on Monday January 24: to promote the results of his five-year term, and in particular his actions in favor of rural territories.
On the professional level, the feeling is the same: Loïc preferred the Gers to Toulouse to set up his gym. “I already had a lot of things created on site, I had my family too, argues the young man. It’s easy to go outside to offer activities that are a little different from what we have on a daily basis indoors. You can quickly go to the lake, for example, do a few sessions there, so it’s quite interesting.”
Especially since with social networks today, there is no longer any need, necessarily, to be in town to have a large community, as explained by Julie, Loïc’s partner. “He has set up an Instagram account which is developing quite a bit”, rejoices the young woman.
“We can create new opportunities, new challenges. We may not necessarily need to be in the city, and we can bring the dynamics to these cities a little more remote than in Toulouse.”
For Sarah, it was also paradoxically easier to find work by moving away from the city since there was less competition. “When I started hairdressing, I always wanted to go to the city centers of the big cities, says the young woman of 22 years. But in the end, I realized that there were so many people in this profession that we could quickly ‘bang on each other’, whereas in the small villages, we make ourselves known as we go along. This is where I have been able to find work for three years.”
On the other hand, she admits, there is a constraint that is always present when you are in a rural department: mobility. “There is not a lot of public transport. Only the train could bring us back, for example to Auch or Toulouse.” Here, it is therefore compulsory from the age of 18 so as not to feel too stuck.