Why are our bodies never just bodies?

In this first episode of Gay in Rural France, I reflect on the idea of the body as currency — especially within queer spaces, and even more so outside the city.

Growing up and living as a gay person often means learning, consciously or not, that your body carries value: how it looks, how it ages, how it’s read by others. From desirability to discipline, from visibility to self-worth, the body becomes something to manage, improve, protect, or trade.

In this episode, I speak openly about my own relationship to the body, about pressure, expectation, and the quiet ways we internalise them — and what it might mean to step back from that logic.

Gay in Rural France is a queer countryside podcast, released monthly.

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform:

👉 Gay in Rural France on RedCircle

https://redcircle.com/shows/40d184b4-bcc8-429e-a72a-18ad2f5f7817

📲 Stay connected:

✨ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/le_demi_chateau

✨ YouTube (Life with Amadeus): https://youtube.com/@lifewithamadeus

✨ Website: https://ledemichateau.com

💖 Support the podcast:

If this episode resonates with you, consider sharing it or leaving a review — it really helps others find the show.

In this final episode of Season 2, I reflect on everything we’ve talked about since relaunching the podcast—mental health, queer visibility, chosen family—and why this space has come to mean so much to me. But I also speak about the reality we’re facing: the worrying political shifts across Europe, the rise of the far right, and what that means for queer people, for all minorities, and for our ability to live freely and visibly.

This isn’t a doom spiral. It’s a reminder that we’re still here. And we’re not going anywhere.

To wrap things up with some softness, I’m sharing a few of my favourite queer movies, series, books, and even a vegan cookbook—things that have kept me company and might do the same for you this summer. I’ll be back in September with Season 3, focusing on the queer body in a heteronormative world—a theme I can’t wait to explore through movement, emotion, and personal stories.

💬 Stay safe, stay visible, and take good care of yourself. We are many, and we are alive.

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform:

👉 Gay in Rural France on RedCircle

https://redcircle.com/shows/40d184b4-bcc8-429e-a72a-18ad2f5f7817

📲 Stay connected:

✨ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/le_demi_chateau

✨ YouTube (Life with Amadeus): https://youtube.com/@lifewithamadeus

✨ Website: https://ledemichateau.com

💖 Support the podcast:

If this episode resonates with you, consider sharing it or leaving a review — it really helps others find the show.

#GayInRuralFrance #QueerPodcast #Pride2025 #SeasonFinale #LGBTQVoices #QueerResistance #HalfChateau

In this episode, I explore what it means to rest—not as laziness, but as a radical, queer act of resistance. Even here in the countryside, with birdsong and silence all around, I find myself rushing. Rest is something I crave but also struggle to allow.

I talk about how productivity feels safer than stillness, what queer rest means in a world that demands performance, and why slowing down is deeply political—especially for those of us who’ve never been given permission just to be.

This isn’t a guide or a how-to. It’s a reflection. I’m not here to tell you to rest more—I’m still figuring it out myself. But maybe, like me, you’re ready to start unlearning the pressure to always do, fix, or perform.

💬 What does rest look like for you? Have you let yourself stop lately?

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform:

👉 Gay in Rural France on RedCircle

https://redcircle.com/shows/40d184b4-bcc8-429e-a72a-18ad2f5f7817

📲 Stay connected:

✨ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/le_demi_chateau

✨ YouTube (Life with Amadeus): https://youtube.com/@lifewithamadeus

✨ Website: https://ledemichateau.com

💖 Support the podcast:

If this episode resonates with you, consider sharing it or leaving a review — it really helps others find the show.

#GayInRuralFrance #RestAsResistance #QueerPodcast #MentalHealthMatters #SlowLiving #LGBTQVoices #CreativeBurnout