The village of François, a bet of living together

At the bend of a flowery hill of sunflowers, 35 km from the center of Toulouse, the huge pink silhouette of the Sainte-Marie-Désert abbey appears in the middle of the fields and forests. His 8,000 m2 of prayer spaces, common rooms and housing were sold in 2020 by the Trappist monks to the social entrepreneur Étienne Villemain so that he can create his first village of François*.

This name refers to the great saint of association concerned with the poor and creation, but also to everyone. “François is a very common name,” smiles Étienne Villemain, founder and managing director of the association which is the project. “This village anchored in the Gospel is open to everyone. We want to experiment here with a new way of welcoming fragile people, by leaving them in the boxes where the confines of the French social system usually. ”

To date, the village has 75 permanent inhabitants (the hotel industry also receiving people passing through). A third party is made up of families with a job and a strong commitment to the project, the so -called “guides” residents.

The other two thirds, faced with weaknesses such as solitude, psychic diseases, addictions, exclusion from the street, are the so -called “welcomed” residents. They can live either in the studio or in a shared room of five to eight people (separate women and men).

The apartments, tastefully renovated, are made up of small rooms and large shared spaces: sanitary facilities, kitchen and living/dining room.

Find a life path

Lénaïg, 64, moved to the spring of 2025 in one of them. “I aspired to a community life because I came out of a big depression and needed to be sustained, surrounded,” she says. She recognizes that at her age, “roommate is learning”, but she finds enriching to confront very different women.

“We are all built up but we feed each other,” she rejoices with her light blue gaze. I found a life path. ” Of course, it is not without sparkles. “Monday, during the day, several women exchanged hard words,” says Lénaïg. In the evening, we had our weekly shared meal. We took the time to come back to what had happened, and all found a smile. ”

Even in an environment with exceptional beauty, Vivre Ensemble is a daily challenge. “No time limit is set to the villagers: they sign not a lease but a temporary occupation agreement,” explains Étienne Villemain. On the other hand, any violent act or displaced behavior can lead to immediate exclusion. ” The decision is the village manager – elected every three years – and his two assistants.

The governance of the place, detailed in an 88 -page document, was worked for a long time by Étienne Villemain (which does not live on site) and a team. The stake is twofold: avoid abuses of power, sex and money, allow people with very diverse routes to meet and enrich each other.

Villagers welcomed as accompanying people thus work together in the maintenance of green spaces, the animation of spiritual life (for those who wish) or even the organization of carpooling with the three pools shared between inhabitants. And everyone undertakes to participate in the shared meal on Friday evening.

Reintegrate through work

If this village is extraordinary, it is also due to its economic and ecological activities that it creates on site. A hotel in full renovation in particular thermal, a honey, two insertion projects (market gardening in organic farming and toys recycling), soon a carpentry offering locally produced furniture … “40 jobs have been created since 2020, and 10 more should be by the end of 2026”, hopes the founder of the villages of François.

This ecosystem has changed the life of Jean-Christophe, 32, engaged in a journey to combat addictions. Arrived as a simple villager in February, he returned to a professionally feet thanks to the market gardener and his insertion advisor. Before landing, in August, a CDI of valet de chambre at the Hotel of the Abbey. Very happy, he welcomes “good notes” that the place obtained on the internet following his work. And that of a whole village.

* Another village has been created since in Audaux, near Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques); Others are planned.