In France, they would be 500,000. Gypsies, gypsies, gypsies, these are the travellers. They have always suffered from a bad reputation. “All thieves”, according to their detractors. So when they land in a city, with their caravans, they are not welcome and often have nowhere to settle. However, the law obliges municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants to provide them with reception areas. Faced with the mistrust of local residents, some mayors prefer not to respect the law. Travelers then have no other choice but to settle, without authorisation, on vacant land, a car park or private property. Intrusions experienced as attacks, causing conflicts, clashes and fights. In some municipalities, we even dug trenches to repel them. In Pérols, near Montpellier, 80 caravans invaded the car parks of a commercial area without notice, during the sales period. Their presence scared away customers, and merchants saw their sales plummet. Exasperated, the latter are ready to do anything to chase away their new unwanted neighbors. In Essonne, in the Paris region, the dozen caravans of Rolando and his family have found refuge near an abandoned factory. To feed his family, the head of the family manages as best he can: he rummages through the bins of the local supermarkets. Armed with an expulsion order, the gendarmes prepare to intervene. Gypsy and proud of it, Henock Cortès could no longer bear to be hunted like a plague victim. He decided to settle down and traded his caravan for a small house where he lives with his family. But this former thug turned rapper hasn't given up on the travellers' cause. Armed with his banter and his impressive physique, Henock went to war against the town halls which respect neither the gypsies nor the law. Investigation into an uprooted community that fights and uses all the stratagems, legal or not, to preserve its traditional way of life.Author: Sébastien Girodon

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