Compagnons du Tour de France

The Compagnons du Tour de France is a French organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages. Their traditional, technical education includes taking a tour, the Tour de France, around France and doing apprenticeships with masters. For a young man or young woman today, the compagnonnage is a traditional way to learn a trade while developing character by experiencing community life and traveling. The community lives in a Compagnon house known as a cayenne and managed by a mère, a woman acting as a second mother, of which there are more than 80 in France. The houses vary in size from a small house for five people to a larger one with more than 100 people living together.

Until recently, the compagnons were all male. Today, they can be found in 49 countries across five continents, practising many different trades.

A similar tradition exists for German Wandergesellen, or journeymen, to set out on the Wanderjahre.

"Tour de France" simply refers to the fact that the Compagnons travel throughout France; every six months to a year they are required to change work locations. This is unrelated to the Tour de France cycling competition. The word compagnon (companion) is derived from the Old French compaignon, a person with whom one breaks bread.

Stages

To start a Tour de France, one is required to already have a Certificat d'aptitude professionelle. With classes and an apprenticeship, it is the basic French trade qualification.

A Stagiaire is in the first year of the Tour. He works full time work in the trade on weekdays and has to live in the Compagnon house. Dinner is eaten together at the siège (seat or lodge) of Compagnons. Those who want to become Compagnons apply for the adoption ceremony.

They do their Travail d'adoption, a project that must be submitted to become an Aspirant. An Aspirant' ' name is then received from the region or town that one is from; for someone from Burgundy, for example, it would be Bourguignon. A ceremonial walking staff, representing the itinerant nature of the organisation, and a sash are also received. Those ceremonies are between Compagnons and Aspirants and are private.

An Aspirant workd full-time on weekdays and staye in the Compagnon house. Dinner is eaten together at the house. The Aspirant stays or tours in several towns over the next three to five years, working under Compagnons, to learn the trade.

Eventually, Aspirants present their masterpiece (travail de réception or Chef-d'œuvre) to the board of Compagnons. There are different kinds of masterpieces depending on the trade. If accepted, one may become a Compagnon itinérant, receive a Compagnon name and be presented with a new walking stick that reaches the height of the heart. Some of the masterpieces are displayed at the Musées du Compagnonnage in Tours and Paris.

The Compagnon itinérant then does three more years of touring. He then becomes a Compagnon sedentaire and can choose where to live and work. He teaches the trade to the youth.

Daily life

A typical weekday for a charpentier (roof carpenter/framer) would involve a day on-site working full-time for the company that employs the aspirant. Dinner between 7pm and 8pm with the community living in the house. Then are classes from until 10 pm in technical drawing, technology, French, English, mathematics etc. On Saturdays, classes are 8am-12pm and 1:30pm–5:30 pm. Skills are learned by making different projects and lessons.

Many maquettes are created by charpentiers and other woodworkers. A maquette is a wooden model that is conceived and created, first through drawings. Wood us cut and assembled to make the model. Many are made throughout the time of an Aspirants. Each piece is expected to show that the lesson learned of the trade have been learned so far. Sundays are spent in exploring the area working on a masterpiece.

The initiation process has been described as a rite of passage, as defined by Arnold Van Gennep. It illustrates his theory in the early 20th century of the rite of passage, with its successive stages of isolation, marginality and aggregation into the social body.[1]

History

It dates to medieval times, when the Compagnons built the churches and chateaus of France and were persecuted by kings and the Catholic Church because they refused to live under the rules of either.

As a craftsman's guild, the Compagnonnage was banned by the National Assembly under the Le Chapelier Law in 1791, which was repealed in 1864.

During the German Occupation of France during World War II, the Compagnons were persecuted by the occupiers, who thought they were related to the Freemasons.

Professions

Notable Compagnons

In literature

The novel Le Compagnon du Tour de France was written by George Sand in 1840.

References

  1. ↑ "Acceptance and masterworks". Carpenters from Europe and Beyond. Archived from the original on 2015-04-07.
  2. ↑ Traugott, Mark (1993). "Agricol Perdiguier". The French Worker: Autobiographies from the Early Industrial Era. University of California Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-520-07932-8. Retrieved 2014-11-25.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.