Florence Gervais d’Alden lives in the village of Babynino near Kaluga. A Parisian who, at the age of 11, suddenly decided that Russia was her country. She worked in the Russian branch of a large French company, and then created her own firm, Rose Fairy. And he grows roses of unique varieties that … smell like roses.
Florence Gervais d’Alden lives in the village of Babynino near Kaluga. A Parisian who, at the age of 11, suddenly decided that Russia was her country. She worked in the Russian branch of a large French company, and then created her own firm, Rose Fairy. And he grows roses of unique varieties that … smell like roses. You won’t find such ones anywhere in Russia: imported ones lose their aroma on the road, and no one grows them here, only Florence. Why? Because he loves roses. And Russia: she worries when teachers from local schools come to work for her in the greenhouse. “Teachers should earn good money: such a big and strong country cannot but take care of this,” Florence believes. In Russia, Florence is pestered by questions about whether it is hard for her and whether she regrets the choice she once made. But to regret, in her opinion, is only about what I wanted to do, but did not succeed. And so far she succeeds. “I am here because all this time I am interested in Russia, because I enjoy it. Otherwise, I would have left long ago.” And in France, she is always asked what they really are, these Russians. “It’s also a strange question,” Florence admits. – Whom should I consider “really” Russian? My Evenk guide in Kamchatka? Buyers in Birobidzhan, to whom I sold sugar in the 90s? Factory workers in Ussuriysk? Bohemian Moscow artists or businessmen from St. Petersburg? I do not like and even fear stereotypes and generalizations. In my opinion, they are suitable only as an instrument of politics.” She doesn’t do politics. And while our country does not reach the hands of either teachers or flowers, the Frenchwoman Florence d’Alden is doing what she can.