Bernard Gauthier & Fils
One hundred years ago, our grandparents and great-grandparents left their commune of Birac, where they were sharecroppers and laborers, to become landowners in Malaville. They had just bought an overgrown farm and ruined buildings, the consequences of the phylloxera epidemic that had wiped out the region's economy. Despite 3 hectares of vines, it was livestock farming and mixed farming that enabled them to live and develop.
Thanks to Vincent and Anatolie, Léandre and Zelia.
Since 1750, they had lived in Birac and given their name to their own village, "Les petits Gauthiers". With hard work, they rebuilt the house and tidied up the fields and vineyards: it was a smallholding of 3 ha of vines, 15 ha of land and almost 10 ha of woods with 4 cows, 2 oxen and 2 horses. Their pride and joy was to rebuild the house and buy a tractor in 1953.