Tourist Imaginary and Rural Values: What Are the Agricultural Perceptions? A Reflection on Crossed Imaginaries

This article deciphers tourist imaginary in a transitional context, in its permanence and evolutions, specifically associated with French countryside. Firstly, we question to what extent the rural represents a dreamt, imagined, and chosen place. Secondly, we analyze how the farmers who are visited fit into this surge of tourist imaginary: what rural perceptions emanate from the agricultural populations themselves? To answer our questions, we focus on the on-farm market, an agritourism concept that has been developing for some years in France. We highlight the interpenetration of two perceptive worlds in the same co-construction process. “Purifying,” “socializing,” or “nostalgic,” the countryside produces idealized representations both for the visitor and for the visited, simultaneously causing dissonances and contrasts in the interaction at play.