Until 2017, 39 year-old Hélène Chaudeau was an audiovisual archivist. In 2018 she decided to become an undertaker, a profession that is just as much about memory and conservation. Settled in the countryside of the Plateau de Millevaches in the Limousin region of central France, she has instigated a collective reflection on how to offer mere mortals an alternative to the business of death.

 By Océane Ragoucy

L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui: What made you decide to become an undertaker?

Hélène Chaudeau: I used to be an audiovisual archivist, a profession that works with memory and whose daily lot consists of sorting, discarding, conserving and selecting. Then my father died and I started to take an interest in funeral ceremonies, getting aware of how most people are completely at sea when it comes to dealing with death, which generally remains a specialist business. So I decided to become a funeral counsellor. To that end, I followed a two-month professional training course as well as an internship, funded by Pôle Emploi (France’s unemployment agency), working with an organisation that belongs to a large French funeral group. The training is quite easy and is attended by a very eclectic public. In my training group, people shared a desire to develop ethical funerals, without encouraging people to spend money. Funeral homes are after all commercial companies like any other, and need to sell coffins to be profitable.

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Read the full version of this interview in AA’s 433rd issue —Social Housing, a French exception ?—, available on our online shop.

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