Every month we talk to a local mayor about his background and the issues affecting his community. In this issue, we visit CHRISTIAN BOSSHARD in Cambremer (Calvados)

Acting as ambassador for his or her commune is all part of a mayor’s job, but it would be hard to find an ambassador who presents his region’s heritage and culture to visitors with more enthusiasm,
passion and sheer depth of knowledge than Christian Bosshard, the mayor of Cambremer and president of the local tourist office.

An engineer by profession, Mr Bosshard explains how he became committed to championing the heritage of the Pays d’Auge.

In the early 1990s, he was a technical and management consultant with the Chambre d’Agriculture: “Quite suddenly it struck me that nobody ever mentioned apples or cider. Nobody took the slightest interest in those producers.

“So I started working with them. It became my specialist area; and the more involved I got, the more I grew interested in the tourism implications, because our apple trees are an inextricable part of the countryside all around us.”

Since then he has led numerous successful initiatives to develop tourism in and around Cambremer and raise the profile of AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) production in the Pays d’Auge. In 2008, he was elected mayor.

Mr Bosshard describes Cambremer as “the quintessence of the Pays d’Auge”. With its superb Norman mansions, churches and houses set in the traditional rolling landscape of orchards and meadows, it is a perfect illustration of all the elements that once lay at the heart of the peasant lifestyle and regional gastronomy: a peaceful, healthy existence sustained by beef, dairy products and apples.

These same elements attract the tourists and visitors on whom the local economy depends. In Cambremer itself, there are 445 primary residences and 138 holiday homes, mostly belonging to Parisians, and the influx of summer residents plays a vital role in keeping the local shops and services buoyant.

Mr Bosshard sees it as his responsibility, as mayor, to maintain the fragile balance between tourism and full-time residency. “My ambition, if not my obsession, is to preserve a friendly atmosphere where the economy is stable, where everyone is content and on good terms with each other, and where we welcome visitors to our town without suddenly one day feeling that we are the visitors in their town,” he says.

“Occasionally someone points out to me that they were born in Cambremer and I wasn’t. My reply is: ‘Nobody can choose where they are born. OK, so I wasn’t born here, but I chose to come and live here. According to my logic, that means I win on points, because I took a conscious decision and made an effort.’ Am I right?

“I have often found it to be the case that the people who are prepared to fight hardest for the town they live in are not the ones who were born there, who tend to take it for granted, but the ones who came along and fell in love with the place. We all summon up the most energy when we are defending the things we truly care about.”