January 2015
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From the 1850’s onwards, the French rural areas underwent changes that intensified after the Great Depression. Consumption now held a crucial part: from then on food became more varied and nourishing, clothes more convenient and elegant, furniture more comfortable and abundant, houses were bigger, better equipped and healthier. However, these changes were not uniform: the gaps between regions and between the various rural groups remained important. Though country people consumed an increasing amount of shop-bought products, they still relied massively on self-production. Thus, the consumption pattern that emerged before World War I was both hybrid and transitory and it would not disappear for good until the Trente Glorieuses.