so, who lives out there? all the people we see fishing on the, uh, riverbanks? are they fishing for dinner? peter: most of them are fishing for dinner. call them poor people. but what is poor? they decide by themselves to live here. they could go to asunción and start working on a construction place tomorrow. anthony: peter has organized a trip upriver to see new bordeaux, what was hoped would be a new france in the chaco. peter: the fish we bought today, fourteen kilo anthony: right. peter: that s half a month s salary. and you get, with a bit of good luck, in one night. anthony: right.
they provided them with, uh guido: yes. right. anthony: houses, equipment. guido: tools and animals and everything. anthony: man i used to have one of these, make pressed sandwiches i think. and that s it. okay, now dig, grow the settlers quickly discovered that farming is hard work, and that the conditions in the chaco in no way resembled the new france of their dreams. that was a big snake. guido: so, they get broke and they decide to leave the colony. anthony: how many french were left at the end of the new bordeaux experiment? did any stay? guido: some of them, but few. anthony: all right. any thoughts or hopes that jean bourdain ended his life here, leaving me a vast, unclaimed stake in what is now prime cattle country turns quickly to dust.
anthony: right, with madame lynch? eduardo: with madame lynch. anthony: madame lynch was fond of, uh, things like french, uh, couture. eduardo: yes, yes, and that changed the way of dress in asuncion. anthony: madame lynch might ve been good for business. i m trying to put this at a light i could be enthusiastic about. like, how clearly forward thinking my relatives were. his customers, as a hat maker, the very people who treated madame lynch with such utter contempt. did they live in the colonial homes, the old mansions that we see still in asuncion, that type of residence? eduardo: yes. anthony: times were changing in south america, too, in those days and society ladies craved the latest in haute courant french fashion. there was money to be made, there w- eh, bump. peter: short after this episode with the new bordeaux group came the triple alliance war. anthony: jean bourdain died in 1858. eduardo: yes, before. peter: it was a good time to die because this way
cannibals. peter: there was the indians, the guaycurú, coming down the river and killing everybody. there was the lengua who, if you entered the country, you are good food. anthony: right. did the paraguayans ever see this as a utopia? peter: no. i m sure not. what we have ahead is nueva bordeaux. anthony: wait a minute. that? peter: this. anthony: wow it s kinda not how i pictured it. doesn t look like bordeaux to me. there s nothing much left of nouveau bordeaux. i m told a small museum of artifacts. the site where the only once briefly existed is now called villa hayes.
pedro: but they were originally from france? anthony: from france. yes. pedro: what city, do you know? anthony: my great-great-grandfather was from near bordeaux. so, i m, i m curious about this whole episode of the settlement of nouveau bordeaux. anthony: the paraguay river still, as it was a hundred and fifty years ago, the country s main artery; a thoroughfare for transporting people and goods.