La France
profonde ("Deep France") is a phrase that denotes the existence of
"deep" and profoundly "French" aspects in the culture of
French provincial towns, of French village life and rural agricultural culture,
which escape the "dominant ideologies" (Michel Dion's expression) and
the hegemony of Paris (as well as other major cities).
The term was
made more familiar to Anglophone readers as a result of Dion's 1988 radical
critique La France profonde, predicting a union of de-communised socialism with
a reformed Catholic Church. Although he used the historical regions of Lorraine
and Mayenne as examples in his book, the term can be applied more widely. It
was further popularised in Celia Brayfield's Deep France: A Writer's Year in La
France profonde (2004) retitled in paperback Deep France: A Writer's Year in
the Béarn. "Deep France" is seen to be profoundly localist in outlook
and to be receding in the face of international mass culture. The term remains
used in national politics, especially since the first election of Emmanuel Macron
as President of France, which led to the subsequent yellow vests movement, which demanded, among other goals, an
improved standard of living and improved government services for rural areas.
Albert
Kahn's photographic and cinematographic studies at the beginning of the 20th
century possibly for the first time helped depict French provincial life and in
doing so gave some vision into "Deep France".
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