Once in Brussels, a friend of mine gave me the address of a place in Paris where I could stay overnight in case of necessity. It was called La Tribu (The Tribe) and was somewhere on Marne river's bank, somewhere in the suburbs. When I arrived in Noisy-Le-Grand, the day was already far spent and  the moon was extremely bright in the sky. It took some time to find my way. Finally I saw a tipi in a garden, and I had no doubt I had reached my destination.

At my arrival, I was welcome by a girl I had met in Brussels before. She brought me to the house where we had a chat and a cup of tea. There were very few people around and I understood most of them were working in Paris where the community was running several businesses, like a bakerey, a vegan restaurant and some whole food shops. 

People arrived around midnight. Most of them looked quite tired and the first contact was quite cold. It seemed that nobody had noticed me. Then some food was served. The atmosphere began to relax when a small group started playng music. Later in the night, I eventually had the opportunity to speak with some "elders". They made it clear that if I wanted to know more about  I had to spend some more days with them. 

This changed a bit my plans. I was fed up with big cities and my friends were waiting for me in Portugal. From there we would travel to India by road and stay there for about one year. Finally I made my decision to stay one more week in Paris. I thought maybe I could learn someting and get useful contacts for my trip. 
 

The Tribe was a group of ecotopians who met in the middle of the 70’s. They started as a back-to-the-land community, sharing everything. The first attempt was short-lived and only a few people remained when the experiment came to an end. Eventually they reorganized around Piel Petjomatest and his family.

I was told Piel was a Canadian of mixed-blood ancestry who had an extensive knowledge of aboriginal cultures. He was from Quebec and had lived on several Indian reservations. In the sixties, he was a publisher and got involved with the sovereignty movement. Because of his political activities, he was then forced to leave the country.

He visited several countries before establishing himself with his wife and their three children in Europe. In the beginning of the seventies, they arrived in France. In 1974, he was studying and lecturing at the University of Paris. At that time, he was also involved in business with emerging countries in Africa and the Middle East and was running several companies. I understood it was partly in connection with his political activities in favour of a "Free Quebec". 

Piel’s charismatic leadership was clearly pivotal in the development of The Tribe and building of the legal framework and economic strategy on which the community would depend. He was at the origin in France of the Ecoop  - the eco-living cooperatives - in which he invested quite much time, resources and energy. In the seventies, those coops were forming an expanding network of green businesses inspired by similar experiences in Canada and USA. One goal  was to provide people with goods and services that were both socially and environmentally sound. Many members of the community were fully involved with the Ecoops.

On the other side, there was the idea to set up a community in a tribal perspective. People in Noisy-Le-Grand - about thirty people at that time - had decided to develop a strong emphasis on self-reliance. It meant they had to find solutions to create their own jobs, sustain themselves as much as possible and have a critical attitude towards artificial needs, relying on nature as much as they could. It was much easier to say than to do.

I could see these were not only talks. Behind the green businesses they were running in Paris there was a practical approach to contemporary problems. People were learning to take responsibility in a global perspective while acting locally. They were pioneering a new social economy providing consumers with high quality products and services at a fair price.

In 1978, there were already several shops in Southern France and Paris, and around 10,000 affiliates - both producers and consumers. The community had started with selling home-made bread and organic produce. But soon all aspects of life were involved: books, clothes, crafts, and many services. By cutting down the number of intermediaries and using voluntary service as much as possible, they could offer the lowest prices for the best quality.

I spent some weeks with the community in Noisy-le-Grand.  Then, I visited their farms in Southern France. I didn't agree with everything, but I was won over by the main ideals. People were not aiming at building a sanctuary isolated from the harsher turmoil of the world; they were fully dedicated to act within the world and to transform it. 

I liked the approach and their commitment. Those people were learning by doing. On that principle, they had opened an experimental college for children and young people in the middle of the seventies, which served also the community. I was pleased with so much concreteness and I started to feel at home.

For themselves, the community had devised and developed a vegan diet. It took me some time to adapt. But soon I felt the healing effects of it. In only a few months, I could feel the changes in my body. I really felt better physically and morally. I had been so addicted to junk foods, meat and sugar. Was it only the food ? What is clear is that I felt good and that my choices were supported by the people arund me. It made things easier and I even quit smoking. 
 
 

There was a basic philosophy among us; something like "try to transform problems into opportunities". I remember that one day we were told by Piel that, thousands of years ago, people had set up small villages on the banks of Marne river. They lived in small tribes and felt a sense of duty for the land, collecting plants and gardening in harmony with the natural laws. It was suggested that we could build up our own village in the garden, using modular and flexible structures inspired by indigenous architecture.

The first experiment had not been convincing. With the time we succeeded eventually to get our gwams comfortable enough to move from the house. Step by step we transformed the whole space of only two thousand square meters, into a tribal camp. We called it Marnoisisles.

In 1980, despite our cramped living conditions, we were more than one hundred people living in Marnoisisles - the first Indian Reservation in Europe, as someone put it.  The ideals of “Metropolitan Indians” living in Paris attracted even more people, and there was the question about how to deal with a growing number of visitors without becoming a zoo. People came from all over the world - Australia, United States, England, Brazil, Japan, Scandinavia. Sometimes there was a real rush at the gate. And we could not stop it.

It gave us the impulse to transform Marnoisisles in a residential center for trainees. At the same time we were prospecting for new sites. I was chosen to design and run a guest program. It took the form of a full-immersion week, including classes of instruction, access to information and practical implication - on-site in the camp and off-site in the co-operatives. 

Visitors were of two types. There were those who wanted to satisfy a kind of ethnological interest, and those who were looking for a new meaning for their lives. We had training programs for groups from 12 to 15 people. We created a guest area in Marnoisisles, where the visitor could become acquainted with the camp life without disturbing our privacy. In the morning participants were introduced to our world view and background. In the afternoon, they could join in the various work departments in Paris: food shops, community kitchens, the bakery. We also arranged social events in the evening.

After ten days, each participant had to clearly take a stand: going his/her own way, applying for full membership in  The Tribe after one year of communal living, or doing voluntary service in the co-operatives. The program ran continuously throughout the year. We kept it working for almost a decade.

Between 1980 and 1984, those experiences we shared to shape our communal life went through a process of trial and error. We continuously refined our agreements to make a good and simple life according to the principles of self-reliance, self-determination, self-government and non-violence.

It was truly exciting to see people doing their best to drop their addictions, their egos, their petty trips - whatever they were. We created our own ceremonies and rituals, and our songs as well. Because people were of many different nationalities, we created a language with words entirely our own. We named our vehicles, our buildings, the many places we visited, the plants and the trees, and spoke of them familiarly. They became part of our history and folklore.

Living with so many people on a small property was very intense. And included no electricity, no flush toilet, a sporadic water situation, a shortage of firewood, parasites. Hygiene, waste management, heating and sewage systems, transportation became hot issues we had to deal with. In the neighborhood, before long everything we did started to drive the people up the walls. We were too many people and we were considered a disturbing party in this middle-class residential area. It meant that Marnoisisles could only become a “gate” for visitors.

Luckily, we were given large areas of farming land and forest in Southern France to use, where we produced organic foods for the community and the cooperatives. I remember that I liked to travel from Paris to those places bringing news and organizing  classes. Here, conditions for experiencing community living and nature were optimal. People felt more at their ease and were free from the heavy pressure of city life. Nature was inspiring and climate was very fine.

More and more, I felt this was the way we had to go: back to the land, back to the woods. Our children were growing stronger, healthier and wilder. The land and our love for it bound us together. It was easier to feel home on a friendly planet and to celebrate life by acting with respect for all Creation - or whatever you call it.

Building new relationships and taking responsibilities were real challenges for many of us. Sometimes, we felt it was too much. Every season was run by a staff of four “Guardians”, one for each elements - Water, Earth, Fire and Air. They co-ordinated the material aspects of our daily life, and were supported in their tasks by the "elemental clans". In that way, avoiding specialization, we learned to take care of each other.

Around us not everybody was looking in the same direction. Our ecotopian thinking was seen as impractical by some people in society. They were only a few but were the most reactionary people I met. They started putting pressure on our families. Some wanted their little children - aged eighteen to forty-five -  back home. Rumors started to circulaate in the media that a new " ecological sect" was threatening the ordre bourgeois. The authorities sent spies, inspectors, social workers, trouble makers, police and military forces. Of course, we were not the only target. This was a common practice against alternative communities and so called "new religious groups". Maybe the message was that we had to take a political stand if we wanted to survive.