In the first of a series of 13 talks by BBC foreign correspondents, the BBC's Paris Correspondent
Philip Short reflects on the changing face of rural France. In a remote valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees, he finds the traditional peasant way of life is disappearing, threatened by new economic pressures. But all is not lost, and the ancient Catalan culture of the region is struggling to reassert itself. Series producer ZAREER MASANI