Louis Rimbault

Louis Rimbault (9 April 1877 – 10 November 1949) was a French individualist anarchist and promoter of simple living and veganism.

Biography

Rimbault was born in Tours from a poor family. By the age of 30 he had become a militant individualist anarchist. He married Marie Clémence Charlotte Paquet on 4 December 1899.

Rimbault was active in individualist circles and became teetotal and a vegan. In 1911, he became associated with Georges Butaud and Sophie Zaïkowska and their vegan community in Bascon, near Château-Thierry. In 1912, he was arrested in connection with the Bonnot Gang. He is suspected, without evidence, of having housed gang members. He was acquitted by the Seine Assize Court on 10 August 1914.

In the early 1920s, Rimbault contributed to the libertarian naturist magazine Le Néo-Naturien. The colony consisted of an old farm comprising ten hectares of cultivable land, a farmhouse and its outbuildings. Members of the colony would receive permission to use the buildings and own a vegetable patch. His long-term plan was to build a school, preventorium and a pavilion for ordinary visitors. However, his plans were ambitious and most of the members were related to his family. His partner Clémence died in 1927 but this did not set him back. He gave conferences in Paris and Tours to promote his vegan colony and published ten brochures. Residents of Luynes did not approve of anarchist boarders joining the colony.

In September 1932, Rimbault had an accident which made him paraplegic. He was left to live at the colony largely in isolation but his support of veganism did not diminish and he continued, until his death in 1949, to welcome boarders and visitors. The colony which supported traveling companions looking for temporal lodging could be compared to a hostel or anarchist rural lodge.