By Aurore Laborie
MONTREUIL, France Sept 18 (Sciences Po) - It's the only place in France like this. A retirement home for low income women over 60 on the outskirts of Paris, self-managed, participative and feminist. The residents call themselves the Babayagas, which in Russian fairy tales, means a character who is part witch, part ogresse.
Yet, there's nothing beastly about the Babayagas when meeting them in their little resident garden, the shade of their fig tree just enough to keep the sun at bay on a warm Friday afternoon. Every second Friday of the month, they organize a get-together over a meal. A chance to reiterate the essence of their collective: "Aging old is good, aging well is better".
Around the table, the Babayagas take their seats, surrounded by their friends and curious female students studying urban or activist sociology. Wine, fig juice, cheese and quiche lie across the long white tables. The mood is cheerful, the four Babayagas present are glad to see some young faces. Glasses are raised, "Skull" says a Swedish resident, while another cheers "To all the feminist battles passed, current and coming".
Despite the age differences (the oldest resident, Jade, is 85 years old), discussions flow easily: feminism, climate change, plants and the realities of old age. A rare and precious intergenerational exchange in the heart of the internet age, which is often accused of increasing generational gaps.
Conceived by feminist activist Thérèse Clerc, the Maison des Babayagas project was first conceived in 1999 when the association was founded. The goal: enabling women to grow old as they have lived, independent and self-sufficient.
Founder Thérèse Clerc, the white-haired Antigone.
"What we want is to look at ourselves in a different way, and for society to look at the elderly in a different way. Old age is not an illness, old age is a beautiful age," Clerc, WHO DIED IN 2016, said in an interview in 1999 on building a home for senior women with low income.
A famous French campaigner for abortion rights, Clerc also founded the Maison des Femmes in 1997, a shelter for women victims of violence in Montreuil, her hometown.
"Thérèse was an icon, she was strong, resilient and incredibly stubborn" recalls Babayaga Flora Fernandez, 80, who was friends with her. The Babayagas House was her most unique project: an alternative to traditional retirement homes and home care that cost almost 4 million euros, financed mainly by the city, the French government, the regional council and the Montreuil public housing office. It took a decade for the project to be born.
"A project exclusively for older women was tough to bring to the table," explains a Babayaga wearing Birkenstocks and black pants. Her name is Catherine Vialles, and she has been a Babayaga for 10 years. French legislation prohibits housing discrimination, meaning a building reserved for women did not pass parity requirements, she explains.
What was originally meant to be a home for women over 60, became the home in 2013 of 21 Babayagas and 4 FOUR younger adults (two men and two women) in urgent need of housing, with rents at an average of 420 euros per month.
But ten years later, there are only four Babayagas around the table, who are still willing to invest their lives in the project.
A difficult utopia to keep up.
Flora Fernandez, a former Spanish teacher, lives in a 30m² apartment on the third floor. She arrived 10 years ago, along with her mother, who lived in the building for three years before passing away. They were next-door neighbors. Her eyes shine with nostalgia when remembering the pre-COVID years.
"What we managed to create was a utopia," she says while showing dozens of old activity programs, most dating to the golden years before Thérèse passed away in 2016. "There was always something planned: painting, writing workshops, exhibitions, photography, etc."
Fernandez is full of anecdotes about the Babayagas. Two that still make her laugh today involve Clerc, who stubbornly wanted a spa in the communal room, but the Babayagas eventually managed to change her mind. The other one is from 2015 when choreographer Karine Saporta, who wanted to involve senior women, invited them to travel with the artists and participate in her show.
"We went to Normandy, danced on the beach with this group of young artists; the guys were very attractive! We became friends as if we didn't have a 30-40 years age difference with them," she recalls fondly.
But the Babayagas are only getting older, and some people who have joined the home do not necessarily have the same collective spirit.
"Everything I got to do with the Babayagas never would've happened to me elsewhere, but we're getting tired," Fernandez said with a sigh.
Not to worry though, around the table that Friday, sat Dominique. A longtime activist, wearing a clitoris-shaped earring, she is thinking of joining the Maison des Babayagas. It remains to be seen whether her application will be accepted by the housing authorities.
A growing demand for non-traditional retirement homes.
The Babayagas' unique model has piqued the interest of senior women abroad. Women from South Korea, Australia and Belgium notably joined the Babayagas on a few Friday lunches to learn the ropes on building a project like this from scratch.
"So far, they've faced difficulties putting the project into practice, making it concrete," explains Fernandez. It's no surprise, a project like this usually takes more than a decade to construct. London's own feminist retirement home called New Ground was also born at the end of the 1990s and took just about the same amount of time to build as the Babayagas.
But France seems to have already moved on from the uniqueness of the Babayagas House, with local authorities now working on building retirement homes for senior LGBTQIA+ people, who represent about 1 million citizens with specific needs: most are childless, and 65% of them live without any family support. The first French queer retirement home will notably open in Lyon in 2024.
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