Back to the land of childhood. “In my Loir Valley, things are rolling” by Christophe Chaland

In Ruillé-sur-Loir – a village in the new commune of Loir-en-Vallée since 2017 – my sister and brother-in-law live in the old family home. On the first day of our report, Laurent, the photographer, and I are generously welcomed with a drink, of jasnières of course: a subtle white, mineral in the mouth, produced just behind “chez nous”, on the hillsides planted with chenin grapes, one of the smallest appellations of controlled origin in France.

In this week in June preceding the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, the vague memory of a racing car mounted on a trailer parked in the courtyard of the house comes back to me. The circuit is only about forty minutes away by road. In the 1960s, my grandmother, a widow of the Great War, would sometimes lodge drivers that the packed Hôtel de France in La Chartre-sur-le-Loir sent her. In the era of soft mobility and global warming, I think that motor racing is no longer for more than a handful of fanatics. A big mistake, quickly dispelled by a visit to the Hôtel de France, precisely. On the central square of the town, a bright green Lamborghini, equipped with a twelve-cylinder V engine (V12), rubs shoulders with a yellow Audi equipped with a V10, an Aston Martin, several Porsches, old and new Jaguars. On the terrace, the owners of these expensive toys chat in English, beer mug in hand. There is no doubt that the small town with its thirteen second-hand dealers and renowned hotel-restaurant remains a benchmark for the good life for the public and the players on the legendary circuit. So much so that former glories of competition such as drivers Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell return there, as if on a pilgrimage, on race days.

Patches and leather goods

The local car culture is not limited to sports. “La Chartre has just been awarded the Village d’accueil des Véhicules d’Ancien label,” rejoices Denys Wissler, a vintage car enthusiast. Over a coffee, this native of Chartres opens my eyes to another aspect of the dynamism of my childhood home. As head of the development center of the Loir-Lucé-Bercé community of communes (twenty-four communes in the south-east of Sarthe), he has successfully implemented a House of Economy and Innovation: Loircowork. Between La Chartre and Ruillé, the brand new eco-responsible building of nearly 700 m2 where he receives me offers offices of coworkinga work organization concept combining the sharing of workspace by professionals from different professions and organizations, bringing creativity and flexibility. Anyone can come and work for a modest rent, by the day if necessary, in a space with the equipment level worthy of a metropolis: fiber, meeting rooms, large videoconferencing screens, catering area, proximity to shops.

From his stronghold, Denys Wissler promotes to investors the “fantastic territory” that is the south-east of Sarthe, with its cheap land, close to the motorway network and the Vendôme TGV station (40 km away). Pointing to a neighbouring building, he adds: “There, that’s the Atelier du maroquinier, a factory for the luxury industry that has been established for about ten years. The workshop employs 200 people and plans to recruit 300 more within three years.”

In my memory, the historic employer in the area is the Rustin company, established at the western exit of La Chartre, on the banks of the Loir, since 1934. The famous rustines, these rubber pellets used to repair flat bicycle tires, made it known throughout France. A discreet company, but “at the forefront of its sector of activity, technical rubbers”, Denys Wissler tells me. I want to know more. Introduce myself as a journalist for Pilgrim allows me to push open the gate and be received by its director, Louis Rustin, affable great-grandson of the founder. The business created by his ancestor, a sports cyclist and bicycle repairer, now employs more than 130 people on two sites. Still as creative as ever, Rustin produces “low carbon” rubbers from quartz. “We are the leader on the European market for technical rubber seals for trains, particularly for the new RER and metro trains,” says the director. I will now think of it, during my almost daily commutes on the Paris suburban train, with a touch of pride.

From rails to wheels

Speaking of trains, a new reminiscence invites itself. Probably at the end of the 1960s, I saw and heard some of the very last steam locomotives when we went to pick up my sisters arriving from their boarding school at the tiny Ruillé-Poncé station: white plume, moving connecting rods, hissing of steam and whistles. A concentration of sensations that my passionate reading of The human beastby Émile Zola, at the age of 16, woke up a few years later. Abandoned for decades, the railway line, opened in 1879, a formidable lever for the development of the region for almost a century, remained like a scar in the valley. But now it is alive again: freed from its rails for two years, it has mutated into a “greenway”, a cycle path lined with trees and fields. Its 33 km are part of the 320 km route of the Loir Valley by bike, from Illiers-Combray (Eure-et-Loir) – where Proust set In Search of Lost Time – in Angers (Maine-et-Loire).

One change leads to another: Romain Galpin, 36, took the plunge into a career change at the prospect of the opening of the greenway. After fifteen years in construction and a stint at the Atelier du maroquinier, this local boy, tired of taking his car to get to work, opened a bicycle repair and rental workshop in Ruillé, just a few pedal strokes away, The Green Bike, le vélo vert. “The business took off really well! People had lost the habit of cycling – the traffic can be dangerous on the main road. They brought me old bikes from their cellars to repair them,” rejoices the giant with generous ideas. Putting his workshop on hold, he left this winter with his wife and child for Rwanda for a month, suitcases crammed with spare parts, to repair the bikes of a racing club.

Nose in the wind

On the greenway, he organizes outings for the elderly on a tricycle with two nursing homes. “They are so happy! One lady cried with emotion when she felt the wind on her face,” he reports. And every two weeks during the school year, the older schoolchildren of Poncé hop on bikes rented from The Green Bike and go to the school in Ruillé, where the younger classes are busy, for the sports session. No more bus journeys! Galiène Cohu, mayor of Loir-en-Vallée, the new commune including Ruillé and Poncé, worked for a year on this project, which is not so simple: “We brought together parents and volunteers. They had to pass the Cyclo Approval to accompany the children with the teacher and the sports instructor.” The mayor praises the result: “We have thus reduced our carbon footprint by 380 kg.”

His reflection makes me wonder: by the way, what is the carbon footprint of the 24 Hours of Le Mans? The Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organizer of the event, estimated it in 2019 at more than 36,000 tons, 65% of which is due to spectators, and proclaims its ambition to achieve neutrality by 2030, mainly through compensatory actions. “It takes time for everything”, as they say in Sarthe dialect, but on the virtuous path to decarbonization, I award the gold medal to Petit Poucet, Loir-en-Vallée.