Tonnerre, pretty town of Yonne crossed by the Burgundy canal, four thousand seven hundred inhabitants. Its medieval church, its museum in the old Hôtel-Dieu, its famous karst spring converted into a laundry in the 18th century.my century… And its SNCF station, where men and women regularly disembark in very precarious circumstances, expelled from the metropolises where gentrification has made them undesirable.
Who are they? Where do they come from? Why were they forced to move? To answer these questions and understand the processes of descent that operate invisibly in our society, Jean-Robert Dantou, 44, went to Tonnerre. A researcher in documentary photography and reflective ethnography, he was stationed in the city for seven years, from 2017 to 2024, as part of his doctoral thesis.
If normally most researchers in this field are located at the starting point, in the places where people depart, before generally disappearing into nature, he chose to place himself at the place of arrival. Even the services of 115, the social emergency number, have difficulty following these people in great precariousness. In Tonnerre, the train station plays an important role “ambivalent”, according to Jean-Robert Dantou: “It is an asset for the city and at the same time a gateway for disadvantaged people, the vast majority of whom do not have any means of transport, not even a bicycle. »
Classifieds and sleep merchants
In contrast to the rural exodus experienced during the second half of the 20th centurymy During the 19th century, populations in France moved, despite themselves, from large cities to medium-sized cities and then to smaller cities or rural villages. “The turning point came in the 2000s, underlines Jean-Robert Dantou. The distance is progressive, we go from Paris to Nanterre, then from Nanterre to Sens, from Sens to Joigny and from Joigny to Tonnerre. Ultimately, the small town of Burgundy implicitly reveals what is happening in big cities, where rents are skyrocketing. »
It is an example, among others, of the hundreds of small cities that are on the front line of the failures of our economic and social model and that are suffering, late, the consequences of deindustrialization. Unemployment has accelerated the departure of many residents from modest cities, leaving many homes empty. “In Tonnerre, their number doubled between 1990 and 2010, reaching 20% of the real estate stock.” points out Jean-Robert Dantou.
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