Word: gourin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tourists. Though Lozach does not intend to return to Gourin ("My kids were born here, and let's face it: it's an easier buck"), many Gourinois do. Samuel Daouphars, 54, was a chef in Manhattan's Au Pêcheur restaurant for ten years before going home with his bundle. Now, like most of the town's 1,000 returned natives, he and his wife own a $20,000 blue and white stone house in Gourin, busy themselves raising flowers and vegetables. "They work hard as hell in America," complains Daouphars. "And all that...
That fact is made evident by the tall, whitewashed houses of les Américains that set Gourin apart from the earth-hugging towns near by. The sound of carpentry rattles constantly through the town's tidy streets as 60 houses are currently under construction. Thanks to les Américains, Gourin's construction industry is Brittany's largest, and in the past generation, more than $1,000,000 has been spent on houses alone. Gourin's biggest and finest grocery belongs to an Américain, as do one of the town's three...
...Receptionist. Unlike the 19th century European immigrants who believed that the streets of America were literally paved with gold, Gourin's émigrés know that the cobblestones are rough-but not so rough as at home. "You've got to work like a dog, do jobs that Negroes and North Africans do in France," says one returned Gourinois. "Still, practically everybody in Gourin has some friend or relative there." Each Christmas Gourin gets 10,000 greeting cards from New York-and many contain dollars...
Typical of the Gourin syndrome, Lozach was born there 36 years ago, left his father's bleak farm for lack of work, and became a "receptionist" in a Parisian meat factory. In 1952 he pulled up stakes and went west, became a bartender in his brother-in-law's New York restaurant, the Café Brittany, on Manhattan's West Side, and began learning the business from the bottom up. "Pigs' feet came first," he explains, "then on toward tête de veau." Today, lean and eager, and sporting a heavy gold ring...
...Bretons converged on Paris to demand less money for Charles de Gaulle's force de frappe and more for industrializing Brittany. Significantly, only four Gourinois turned up in the crowd. This summer Lozach has arranged for Air France to carry 212 Manhattan operatives of the Stade Breton-Gourin's local sport and socializing club-back to the home village. "They'll spend about $2,000 each," Lozach explains. "That makes the place pretty wealthy...