This extract from the renowned Picardian Jean de la Fontaine in “The labourer and his children” is a good illustration of what the word “work” means for Picardians: a way of gaining freedom, dignity, making a dream reality and entering a utopia. Picardie demonstrates its worth in the ‘doing’; this is why everyone agrees on the value of work in the region and why there are so many skills... such as the masterpieces and technological innovations.
The region harbours an incredible diversity of skills, both past and present. They centre around the sea, marshland, streams and rivers, around textiles, wood, the land and plants, around occupations in art, architecture and industry, and finally around the merchant tradition, which began with trade in ‘guède’ (the only blue dye plant in the Middle Ages), bringing prosperity to the town of Amiens in the Middle Ages.
As Sophie de Paillette says in her book “Picardie, body and soul”, “In all fields, the Picardian views respect for a job well done and a skilled hand as essential.”
There is also in Picardie a natural predisposition towards artistic talents - literature, painting, architecture and above all a will to achieve the wildest dreams. The cooperative store in Guise in Aisne is a beautiful example of this. Its founder, Jean-Baptiste-André Godin, is an icon of Picardie. The son of a village craftsman turned manufacturer (the famous cast-iron frying pans), he believed in economic and social action, because he was convinced that social progress can accompany technical and scientific progress. He founded the cooperative store (‘Familistère’) in 1859 to house his employees and create “a more pleasant and tolerable daily existence” for workers and their families. A reformist and experimenter, he was keenly perceptive of the transformations of society during his age. The Familistère de Guise therefore became a town all its own, with shops, a haberdashery, doctor, midwife, crèche, etc. Each of the 2,000 residents organised their life as part of a perfectly regulated community. It continued until 1968.
It was the same story in Vallée de la Nièvre in Flixecourt in the Somme, where the Saint family built up in the space of two decades a powerful textile company, based on an innovative paternal social policy. The Maison du Textile (‘Textile House’) in Aisne in Fresnoy-le-Grand, a fief of Le Bourget, tells this long and rich history of a leading industry and a regional skill of worldwide renown.
In Saint-Quentin, which has the benefit of being close to Paris and community markets, industry is particularly dynamic and highlights the skills of a qualified workforce. Industrial tourism in the area is hugely successful, with some fifteen companies in the surroundings open for visits.
The dynamic nature of Picardie has always been in tune with the times. It was involved in the beginnings of aviation, with pioneers such as the Caudron brothers in Rue and later the industrialist Henri Potez, whose Airbus factory in Albert-Méaulte continues the tradition of aeronautical excellence. It also has a hand in cosmetics, in Oise, with Yves Saint-Laurent in Lasigny, Givenchy in Beauvais and Chanel in the Compiègne area, much loved by Coco Chanel.
Like the sky, the rich Picardian land is also an unceasing source of inventions. From Parmentier, which made Montdider the capital of the potato, to the development of carbohydrates, the region has continued to effectively use the products of agriculture and innovate with biotechnologies, engineer training in Compiègne, Amiens, Saint-Quentin and Beauvais and their research centres, such as the ‘Centre de Valorisation des Glucides’ (‘Carbohydrate Development Centre’). As pioneers in bio-fuels, with Diester (made from colza oil) produced in Venette, producers and manufacturers of sugar and cereal are preparing for the challenges of the future. Tereos is launching an ethanol distillery alongside its sugar mill in Origny-Sainte-Benoîte. The food industry is not resting either and is developing food for modern needs at Findus in Beauvais and Bonduelle in Estrées-Mons. This has meant that Picardie, together with the Champagne-Ardennes region, has been named a globally-oriented ‘industry and agro-resources’ competitiveness cluster.
Company visits in Picardie provide a taste of what tomorrow’s world will be.
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