They whisper. Annabelle Neau, 33 years old, and Jérémy Le Strat, 32 years old, do not want to disturb the architects, the journalists, the computer scientists who strum on the keyboard of their computers. “There are fewer of them than usual. That’s normal for a Wednesday. Many of our regulars prefer to work from home to look after their children”, blow the founders of Rigado, this farmhouse converted into a coworking space. Opened in Vannes in October 2021, the place is full. It is now necessary to register on a waiting list to claim one of the thirty offices rented by freelancers and teleworkers.
The majority of them have recently settled in the Vannes region. This is also the case for Annabelle Neau and Jérémy Le Strat. The couple lived in downtown Nantes when the desire to open a coworking space in a city ” at Human scale “close to the sea, sprouted over the first lockdown of 2020. These web developers had “go around” of the metropolis of Loire-Atlantique and wanted to enjoy the calm. Convinced that many of them dreamed of a new life on the coast, they prospected in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and Vannes. A few market studies later, the thirty-year-olds chose the Morbihan prefecture, convinced that the city no longer deserved its reputation as a “sleeping beauty” welcoming more retirees than active people.
The latest demographic developments, communicated by INSEE in December 2022, confirm the dynamism of the territory. In 2020, 173,000 inhabitants lived in the Vannes conurbation, 9,000 more than in 2014. “These data do not allow the effect of Covid-19 to be gauged. The territory seems to me, today, even more attractive », diagnose Annabelle Neau and Jérémy Le Strat.
Jean-Alexandre Jossin approves, shaking his ponytail. Like the majority of Rigado regulars, this 45-year-old graphic designer does not yet appear in these statistics. He left the Paris region when his wife, a civil servant, obtained his transfer to Brittany in September 2020. “We dreamed of living in Morbihan. Here, people take their time and are available. We were tired of spending two hours daily in transport. I was ready to quit and become an oyster farmer to settle in Brittany”, he assures. His boss finally offered him to continue his telecommuting contract. For the first few months, Jean-Alexandre Jossin went to his company’s headquarters two days a week. From now on, a monthly round trip is enough.
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