Chroniques de l'Enclave

The Chronicles of the Enclave were written based on accounts gathered by Jeanne Béziers from the residents of Valréas, focusing on the memories of workers and farmers in and around the town, amongst the vineyards and cardboard factories, during the last century.

My father
he would mark out the rows in the vegetable patch
with his foot
he would stretch a string
sometimes he would plough
with the horse
but he’d mark out the drainage ditch with his foot
and it couldn’t be done any other way
you had to make do with what you had
my father always sold his physical labour
that’s what people bought from him
whether it was cardboard work
or working the land
that was what he could sell