The Rochechouart district sits in the rolling hills of Haute-Vienne, in southwestern France. The town itself is best known for the meteorite that struck the area roughly 200 million years ago — its impact still etched in the local geology, and quietly threaded through the district's identity. It is a small place: a few thousand residents, a château, allées of plane trees, a quiet weekly market.
It is also one of the two communities the founders of Pour la Joie chose as a starting ground. Not because Rochechouart needs joy more than anywhere else — it doesn't. But because beginnings need a scale you can hold in your hand. A district where people might know each other, recognize a name, pass a Joie that genuinely lands.
What we are asking the residents of Rochechouart is simple: who would you like to honor? Whose name should the first locally-issued Joies carry? Which gestures, in your district, deserve to be noticed and shared?
We are listening. Write to us, leave a note at the local café, or tell us in person the next time we are in town.
Reading this from a small village in the district. I would like to honor my mother, who could not pursue more advanced studies despite her skills but lived to become the memory of her small village, selling seeds to her clients, sowing seeds in the minds of her children, grand-children and great grand-children. And why not use the Joies to her effigy to thank those who help the Comité des Ostensions de Saint Victurnien organize the 2023 edition of these septennal festivities in their nearby town?
Jean-Pierre V. ·