BERGERIE DE FAUCON

La Bergerie de Faucon is a special home where young people are reintegrated  through contact with animals. I document this moment of rupture for  young people, who are in transition between the worlds of childhood and  adulthood. 

Located in Rougon, in the heart of the Gorges du Verdon  Regional Park, the Bergerie de Faucon was created in 1974 by Father Guy Gilbert. Today, it is a home for 7 teenagers placed in care by the Aide Sociale à l’Enfance. Its vocation is to house, monitor and reintegrate these young people, who have found themselves in danger, out of school or involved in delinquency. Faucon, unlike a hostel, is a place to live, and can therefore accommodate no more than 7 young people at any one time. In this sense, it’s a privileged place for those who have often been shuffled from foster home to foster home without ever really being able to find the necessary attention and consistency that comes with a stable place to live. Realizing that young people are particularly sensitive to animals, Father Guy Gilbert had the idea of integrating them into Faucon from the outset. All the life revolves around that. Every day of the year, whatever the weather, the first and last activities of the day involve caring for the animals. The young people, who are all aged between 12 and 18, are at that pivotal moment in life when the need to build and define a certain identity becomes stronger and more assertive than during childhood. Every day, they search for and question rules and limits, sometimes challenging the authority of their educators, but they also know how to listen and be sensitive. I document this moment of rupture for young people, who, marked by their past and their placement in a home, are in transition to adulthood.