Word: ens
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...peasants in Moras En Valloire have little to look forward to but more work. The only respite from the toil comes with death--all the peasant's life he is little more than a tool, bobbing up and down the rows, pulling the weeds or picking the fruit. For me it was an adventure. albeit not always a very exciting one. For them it is the only life they have ever known--and the only life they will ever know...
Still, the 20th century is slowly creeping into Moras En Valloire, transforming the village. The peasants have kept their work ethic as a legacy from their ancestors, but many of them own modern conveniences very much at odds with their traditions. The Vallets, for example, own a TV, and while eating dinner we often watched detective shows (Kojak and Mannix were Vallet favorites). Two tractors stood outside the house, but the Vallets used them only when machinery could do the job better than a person; and that was rare...
...village is also losing its sense of history. As in most small French villages, history is everywhere in Moras En Valloire. Julius Caesar named the town when he and his army camped there one night in 58 B.C., and a huge manmade hill just above the town marks the burial site of an ancient Celtic hero. A large 11th century feudal castle had loomed over the village until Cardinal Richelieu ordered the castle destroyed in 1627, but its crumbling stone walls still linger...
Above the church, on the hill above Moras En Valloire, is the Madonna, a huge statue erected in 1854 to watch over and protect the village. She was once the pride of the town, but today the short path to her base is overgrown, and she rarely receives visitors these days. At one time she was lit up at night, but the lights were smashed a decade ago and nobody has taken the time to replace them...
...young who are most responsible for the changes in Moras En Valloire. They retain the peasant work ethic, for that is too deeply rooted in their psyches to discard; but generally they tend to be impatient with tradition. Instead, they prefer the future with its glittering promise of a new and better life ahead...