“I was struck by the necessity and urgency of learning to do what matters, growing to feed ourselves, supporting farmers”

Being a peasant, in my childhood, was devalued, considered a job for a simpleton, “croggy”, even though I grew up in an agricultural region, in Ariège. My parents are teachers, I was immersed in a world of culture much more than agriculture. My first job was certainly castrating corn, like all the local kids, but the fields, for me, were mostly about playing hide and seek.

That said, we ate well at home and, every Saturday morning, we went to the very famous Pamiers market. While my mother mainly prepared everyday dishes, my father did lots of experiments: fermentations, drying, simmered dishes such as coq au vin or pot-au-feu… Since I became vegetarian, he even tried his hand at stuffed seitan and “fake fat” with Armagnac. That said, my favorite dish is not from him but from his mother, Aline, who is very important to me.

My grandmother had a house near Agen with a magnificent garden, full of flowers and vegetables, which she looked after alone. She cooked a lot, for huge family tables, and all meals began with tourin, an ultra-basic and tasty garlic soup, typical of the region. Although it was never said, she was the one who showed me how awesome it was to grow and eat your own vegetables. She taught me simplicity and humility.

From advertising to “green guerilla”

I left the South-West at 17 to do theater and music in Paris. I was in a punk group of very edgy girls. We were shouting loudly into the microphone, we were playing badly but we were having a lot of fun. I had a lot of food jobs, waitress, saleswoman, voice dubbing… I gave up theater, then music, but I always kept the punk spirit, this provocative, somewhat messy aesthetic, where we let go and try lots of things.

The accelerator of my life was the only well-paid job I had, at an advertising agency, eight years ago. This job was insane, I didn’t understand how we could spend so much to sell yogurt. I was struck by the necessity and urgency of learning to do what matters, to grow crops to feed ourselves, to support farmers. After a year, I left everything to train in market gardening. And as I love telling stories, I decided from the start to document everything by filming myself. This is how my YouTube channel started.

Returning to Paris after my training in Sologne, I worked in urban agriculture, on roofs, with nurserymen, and was interested in shared gardens, allotment gardens, green guerrilla and the political and feminist dimension of “activist gardening”. Exchanges are often peaceful when we talk about food, childhood, nature. Four years ago, I installed my small greenhouse in La Cité fertile, a nourishing wasteland in Pantin, in Seine-Saint-Denis. I welcome the public and I grow lots of vegetables. I love that people arrive here by chance, and discover the humility and beauty of plants, between two paving stones.”