Podcast: Reinventing retirement, saving a Paris cinema, counting the French

Podcast: Reinventing retirement, saving a Paris cinema, counting the French

From Spotlight on France by RFI English

January 15, 2026 · 30 min · Episode 138

About this episode

The episode discusses innovative approaches to retirement living, the reopening of a historic cinema in Paris, and the annual census in France.

An alternative to a retirement home in a mansion near Toulouse, where residents have invented a new way of living together and contributing to society. The David-and-Goliath story of an independent Parisian cinema that's reopening after years of fighting eviction. And the story behind France's annual census. Scandals over abuse of the elderly in French care homes, combined with growing loneliness among pensioners, are forcing reflection on how – and where – people spend their later years. Three decades after founding the Utopia network of independent cinemas, Anne-Marie Faucon and Michel Malacarnet have turned their energy and experience towards imagining an alternative to traditional retirement homes. Their project, La Ménardiere , is an 18th-century mansion in the small town of Bérat, in south-west France. It operates as a shared-living collective, where residents, known as coopérateurs , are also shareholders. By taking control of their own destinies, they have created a model that also provides services and cultural activities for the surrounding community. Residents describe the approach as ageing together in a house that is “on the offensive”. (Listen @4') La Clef, an…

Topics covered

  • retirement
  • cinema
  • census
  • elderly care
  • community living

Keywords

  • retirement homes
  • Paris cinema
  • census
  • elderly care
  • community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Utopia, La Clef

Places: Bérat, Toulouse, Paris

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