Caroline Mitre, born French in Vietnam in 1959. Her Eurasian parents worked for the French army. Upon arriving in France in the 1960s, both had to work in Paris. The children were placed in a boarding school near Vichy. Caroline has fond memories of this period and feels lucky compared to the other Indochinese children who stayed in Noyant-d’Allier, whom she met during school holidays.
Khoune Nang Hoareau was born in Laos in 1926. It was in Hue, in central Vietnam, that she met her husband from Réunion. They arrived in France in 1963 with their ten children. Settling in Noyant-d'Allier, the family would grow with the addition of five more children.
Freshly cut morning glory. The first grandmothers who arrived at the Saint-Livrade-sur-Lot camp gave their precious seeds, brought from Vietnam, to the neighboring farmer. Today, the farm produces only Asian vegetables and herbs.
Noyant-d'Allier Pagoda, built in 1983.
Jérémy Fouqué, 32 years old. Born in France to a Vietnamese father and a French mother. His tattoo represents a dragon's head, with the layout of the CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina) in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot and its iconic water tower.
Édith Simon was born in Vietnam in 1952 to a French father from the Expeditionary Corps and a Vietnamese mother. She arrived in France in 1955, and the family settled in the Morvan, the father's village of adoption. Édith navigated between two ways of life: Vietnamese at home and French at her "grandmother's" house, across the road. When her father was mobilized for Algeria, she reunited with her mother and the Vietnamese community settled in Noyant-d'Allier.
In front of the pagoda of the CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina) in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot.
Julien Cao Van Tuat was born in Vietnam in 1958, to a Vietnamese mother and a father who, at the age of twenty, received French nationality through a "judgment based on appearance." The family of nine children arrived in France in 1959. For about a year, they lived in a military camp near Poitiers. In October 1962, with the arrival of the first pieds-noirs, they were relocated to Noyant-d'Allier.
On August 15th, during the Fête de la Mémoire, a national gathering of the descendants of repatriates from Indochina.
Lion's head brought back from Vietnam by the first repatriates from Indochina who arrived in France in 1956.
David Harasymczuk was born at the CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina) in 1970, to an Eurasian mother and a father of Polish/Ukrainian origin. He is photographed at the location of the camp where his Laotian grandmother raised him.
Édith Simon, born in Vietnam in 1952 to a French father from the Expeditionary Corps and a Vietnamese mother, presents the portrait of her parents. She arrived in France in 1955, and the family settled in the Morvan, the father's village of adoption. Édith navigated between two ways of life: Vietnamese at home and French at her "grandmother's" house, across the road. When her father was mobilized for Algeria, she reunited with her mother and the Vietnamese community settled in Noyant-d'Allier.
In the Memory Site of the CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina), a suitcase used by the Weiss family during their repatriation from Indochina.
Jacqueline Maggiol was born in Vietnam in 1956, to a mixed-race father and a Vietnamese mother. Her parents hesitated to leave Vietnam. In 1965, with the entry of the United States into the war, they finally boarded the last repatriation boats bound for France. The Vietnamese community in Noyant-d'Allier, already well-established, facilitated their arrival. Jacqueline in front of her childhood home.
Nguyen Thi Phuoc Trong, born in Vietnam in 1980, is part of the 1.4 million Vietnamese who fled the communist regime following the fall of Saigon in 1975. She becomes Caroline Guyenne when her parents settle in France, in Noyant-d'Allier, in 1991. The town already has a Vietnamese community that arrived in 1956, following the end of Indochina.
Inside a mining house (coron), in Noyant-d'Allier.
Jacques Genin was born in Vietnam in 1945. He was repatriated in 1956 as a "child of the troupe." With his wife, who is also Eurasian, they participate in the Fête de la Mémoire on August 15th at the CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina).
Dragon Park, the Asian garden of Noyant-d'Allier.
Villeneuve-sur-Lot Pagoda, mostly funded by donations from the "grandmothers" repatriated to the CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina) in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot.
The interior of a mining house, in Noyant-d'Allier. In the photo from 1959, Julien Cao Van Tuat and his family upon their arrival in Marseille.
Memorial dedicated to the fighters of the Indochina War. CAFI (Reception Center for the French of Indochina) in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot.
Two of the Caze family's sisters, Claudine and Monique, in front of the last four original buildings of the camp.
Oscar, Ryan, and Luc Nguyen. Brothers and cousins born in France to Vietnamese parents, posing in the Dragon Park, the Asian garden of Noyant-d'Allier.
Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, 1954. After two months of fierce battle, the cannons and guns fall silent. The Viet Minh wins the Indochina War, and France loses its colony, the "Pearl of the Empire." Over the next two years, 30,000 repatriates from Indochina land in France. They had to leave in haste and abandon everything. Those who have connections disperse across the country, while others are taken in by the French administration and placed in temporary reception centers. Most are soldiers, Indochinese auxiliaries, and widows. The largest camps are those of Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot (47), Bias (47), and Noyant-d’Allier (03).
In Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot and Bias, 1,900 repatriates are housed in former military powder factories. The comfort is rudimentary; metal camp beds are arranged in barracks with corrugated tin roofs. A "temporary, essentially precarious, and revocable accommodation," as stated in the 1959 camp regulations. The temporary arrangement lasted forty-nine years.
In Noyant-d’Allier, the old mining housing (corons) is made available to the 1,700 new arrivals. Their discovery of mainland France is a brutal one. The reality is far from the fantasized image propagated by colonial schoolteachers. It’s winter, the snow covers the fields as far as the eye can see, and the thermometer reads minus twenty-five degrees. After the initial shock, they must adapt, find their place, and integrate. The children swell the numbers of nearby schools. The adults work in factories or on farms. Wages are low, and life is harsh.
In 2013, the powder factory in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot was transformed into social housing. However, its pagoda and four buildings have been preserved as a place of memory. Some of the repatriates' children have returned to live in this area full of memories. The photographic series "From Indochina to the Bocage" received support for contemporary photography from the National Center for Plastic Arts.