Major reporting, guests and European news are featured in this news magazine presented by Eléonore Gay and broadcast late Thursday evenings on France 2, as well as Sundays at 10.40 a.m. on France 3.
A third of French people live in rural areas. Attractive, life in the countryside is not always easy: isolation, distance, remoteness from public services… In Romania, a country that is rediscovering its countryside, a slightly crazy project has become reality: the Via Transilvanica, a 1,400 kilometer hike crossing the country from north to south, is now complete, giving a second wind to depopulated villages. “We, the Europeans” (X) make the point.
Villages that come back to life
> THE BIG REPORT
Would King Charles III be an ambassador for the Romanian countryside? The sovereign seems to have fallen in love with the Covasna region, where he decided to buy an estate. “We Europeans” met him not far from the village of Sapartoc, in the beautiful hills of Transylvania. This traditional town is coming back to life thanks to the construction of the Via Transilvanica.
“My only goal was to revitalize rural areas, and the enthusiasm was quickly shared“, says the initiator of this long-distance hiking trail, Alin Useriu, who mobilized 10,000 volunteers to mark out the route, on the model of the Compostela paths and the American Pacific Crest Trail. Along the path taken by tourists to on foot or by bike, hostels have been created, old houses renovated, innovative companies have even set up nearby, attracting young Romanians who have returned from abroad, seduced by the quality of life in the countryside.
A report by Alexandre Paré and Philippe Maire.
> THE GUESTS
Farmer, restaurateur, mayor of a dynamic village: Eléonore Gay meets these French people who have decided to stay in their countryside, or who have chosen to settle there, where, they say, “life is so good“.
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