If you were intrigued by Jancis's Wine in wartime article on Saturday about wine professionals displaced by conflict, read more here. Above, Walid Habchi pictured in his vineyard in Lebanon when there was no threat of attacks from the air.
There follow the unedited personal accounts of those mentioned in Saturday's article. Details of the Artémis Domaines Golden Vines Scholarships for wine professionals affected by conflict are available here. Applications close at the end of February 2025.
Natalia Homeniuk
2022 Artémis Domaines Scholar, Ukrainian sommelier and caviste, fourth-generation winemaker.
On February 24, 2022, I woke up early to the sounds of explosions near our home. My husband and I quickly dressed the children, gathered the necessary documents, and decided to leave the city for our summer house in the suburbs. In the following hours, the explosions grew closer, and for the safety of our children, we made the decision to leave the country for a while. The same evening, we headed to Moldova.
During the 2–3 days we spent there, we were uncertain about what to do next and began considering other options. Then, unexpectedly, I received a message from my friend and colleague, Thibault, a Frenchman with whom I had the fortune of working at the Shabo Winery (Ukraine, Odessa region). He kindly offered us assistance, stating that he was currently working in Argentina and that my family and I could stay in his apartment in Bordeaux. I am eternally grateful to him and will remember his gesture of help for the rest of my life. We got into our car, drove for five days, and finally arrived in Bordeaux.
I can't deny that my knowledge of French, which I started learning in primary school, proved invaluable here. Like many Ukrainians, at the beginning of our journey, we thought we would be here for only a short time and would soon be able to return home. But now, nearly three years later, we are still in Bordeaux. I can boldly say that this has been the hardest period of my life since my father's passing, but at the same time, the most interesting. Starting a new life from scratch is always difficult, especially when you have the responsibility of two children. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Sometimes, seemingly hopeless situations point us in the direction for future progress and growth.
This was the case for me. In the summer of 2022, I won one of the Gérard Basset Foundation's scholarships – the Artémis Domaines Golden Vines Victims of Conflict Scholarship. This scholarship gave me the opportunity to intern for six months at the prestigious Château Latour. To say that I was happy would be an understatement. It fulfilled my long-held dream since studying for my Master’s in Oenology. I was given an extraordinary opportunity to work at every stage of the production of great wine, from the vineyards to the packaging of the finished product in beautiful wooden boxes. This included working on and conducting thousands of analyses in the laboratory during grape processing and the completion of malolactic conversion. I was fortunate to participate in technical tastings and winemaking experiments, worked in the cellar with a team of professionals, and took part in the Primeurs event, which is traditionally held at Château Latour.
After completing my internship, I was offered two additional fixed-term contracts (CDD) at Château Latour. Currently, I am focused on improving my French language skills while also studying for the WSET Level 3 program. In March 2025, I will take two exams: the theoretical part and the tasting.
Looking ahead, I am searching for a work contract in the wine and spirits commerce or wine tourism sectors. I am interested in exploring this role in France to make the right decision for my long-term future.
In the medium term, I am considering further education options, such as the WSET Level 4 Diploma or a Master's in Wine and Spirits Commerce and Marketing.
As for Ukraine, no one knows when the war will end. As long as military actions are going on there, I cannot return.
From another side, I don’t see the possibility of returning there for the time being. We have only just begun to establish our life here, which has been very challenging. To return to Ukraine would mean abandoning everything I have built here and starting from scratch. My mother and family are with me here, and I am most likely planning to stay in France. However, I would really like to stay connected with Ukraine and contribute to it with my new knowledge, as I know how valuable it is to my country at this time. I am also considering options for remote work with Ukraine.
At present, I am continuing my studies and looking for a stable job in the wine industry.
Lilia Khachatryan
2022 Artémis Domaines Scholar, Armenian winemaker.
After receiving the Gérard Basset Scholarship and waiting 3–4 months for my work visa, I finally began working at Clos de Tart in December 2022. Everything was progressing well until July 2023, when I was unable to renew my visa due to administrative oversight, despite having a valid work contract. I had to pack up and leave for Armenia within a day. It was an incredibly disorienting experience, especially after investing so much time and effort to settle in Burgundy, only to suddenly be forced to leave the region.
It was particularly challenging to obtain a tourist visa during the busy summer season, but I managed to do so and returned to Burgundy to catch a glimpse of the harvest (visiting Mugnier, Rousseau, etc.) and search for a new job. Anne Gros offered me a position, but it was clear that it would take at least another 3–4 months to secure a new visa and work permit. So, I returned to Armenia and helped a friend during the harvest in Vayots Dzor.
In early October 2023, entirely spontaneously – after drinking a bottle of Mugnier’s 2011 Musigny – I decided to make my own wine. It was a risky endeavor – I had no vineyard, no grape purchase contract, no winemaking facility, and no clear sense of how long I’d be staying in Armenia. Who would look after my wine when I eventually returned to Burgundy? Despite all these uncertainties, I pulled it off. I now have two barrels of Areni Noir from the 2023 vintage (and some in tank) aging in near-identical François Frères barrels. I’m about to bottle the two barrels separately, as they come from two different vineyards and offer distinct expressions of the same grape and their respective terroir.
I joke that Cédric Klapisch could make another Back to Burgundy movie based on my experiences. The harvest and vinification were nothing short of cinematic – one of the farmers sold grapes promised to me to someone else, leaving me with insufficient quantity. I had to move the grapes from Vayots Dzor to a winery 100 km away, start fermentation, leave the wine in the care of friends, return to Vayots Dzor to buy more grapes, start a second batch in a new winery, and then move the first batch back to the second winery in Areni before pressing. And that’s just part of the story!
Finally, in May 2024, I received a new work permit and returned to Burgundy with a permanent contract at Anne Gros. After a tumultuous growing season and harvest, I again made a spontaneous decision to move back to Armenia permanently. The irony is that I had aspired to work in Burgundy since 2014, and after securing a permanent position, I left after just a few months.
I had an amazing experience at Anne Gros, and the bond I've built with her is priceless. It was hard to leave a place where I had both support and mentorship. Her guidance was clearly formative, and I left it behind only to chase something more personal. Wanting to eventually make something as grand as Richebourg or Musigny – is a dream shared by many, but not easily realized. Burgundy’s terroir is the epitome of that ambition, but once entrenched there with investors, contracts, and everything else, my ability to break free and pursue a singular vision would become quite limited if not impossible. Armenia, on the other hand, offers a more open canvas, with that wild mix of ancient history and potential for personal expression. It allows me to create something fresh, from the ground up, where I can fully dictate my vision without as much constraint. And the timing 2023 to 2024 was significant. I made my own wine, and then worked one full vintage in Burgundy. The decision was propelled by an almost instinctive pull to embrace something new and to create a narrative of my own wine, rather than trying to fit into an already established, albeit illustrious, framework. The choice was not just choosing between Burgundy and Vayotz Dzor, but a life that allows for a wider definition of success: one that might be as much about personal fulfilment as it is about the wine.
Vitalii Larin
2022 Artémis Domaines Scholar, Ukrainian winemaker stuck in Ukraine.
I received the scholarship back in 2022 but it is not possible for me to receive the entire amount at the moment. Since 24 February 2022, martial law has been declared in Ukraine. Many men have voluntarily gone to serve in the army. Including my colleagues. Some of them, unfortunately, have already died heroically defending their homeland. Others are not having the best times for professional development and have even lost their jobs in the field. Professional education is not at the right time. Restaurants have undergone significant structural changes. Overall demand has decreased both in volume and in assortment.
Having lost my job at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I was among those who managed to find a new one. The economy must work, especially during wartime. As far as I know, international financial support cannot always be used for military needs. Only taxes can.
Men aged 25 to 60 are subject to military service. This is an obligation. Only in the summer of 2024, the conscription age was lowered from 27 to 25. Now there are rumours about lowering the conscription age to 18. During martial law, men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine. There are several options for not being drafted into the army: strict medical contraindications, studying at a university, certain family status, and reservation as an employee of a certain economically critical infrastructure. None of them provide for the possibility of freely leaving Ukraine.
Currently, only short-term travel abroad is allowed for certain categories. Among them: military personnel with permission from the command, students under 22 years old on exchange programs, volunteers and critical infrastructure employees on agreed business trips. They all need special permits from the military administration and additional checks at the border.
Last spring, for the needs of the company, I was lucky enough to receive a seven-day business trip to visit Prowein in Düsseldorf. It is difficult to convey how much I was impressed by the atmosphere, which I had already forgotten in two years in Ukraine. The way to Düsseldorf took me almost two days. Partly due to the strike of passenger carriers and the change of flight and departure city. But the most difficult thing was the way to the airport. What used to take 30 minutes by taxi from the center of Kyiv took a day by night train and further transfers. All airports in Ukraine have been closed to civil aviation since 22 February 2022. There were only no more than a dozen men on the crowded train. The rest are women and children, as well as on the way back.
On the one hand, it can be said that short-term trips abroad are possible for certain categories of men. On the other hand, it is not possible to be sure and even more so to plan them for specific dates a year in advance. And this is only from the point of view of permissibility and without taking into account legislative and security changes. In my opinion, this situation encourages changes in the ratio of professionals in wine among men and women. The latter, having the opportunity to leave freely, still face security problems in the country, finding decent work and 24-hour journeys to the nearest airport.
Larysa Markevych
2022 Artémis Domaines Scholar, Ukrainian winemaker.
I am 28 years old and graduated from Odessa National Technological University with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Industry Technologies and Engineering. I also hold a Master’s degree in Fermentation Products and Winemaking Technologies and a Master’s degree in Economics of Entreprise.
I gained my first practical experience in winemaking during two internships in Beaujolais in 2016 and 2017. My first job was at the family winery Kolonist in the Odesa region of Ukraine, where I worked for nearly three years until the outbreak of the war. I never intended to leave my country, let alone flee from the war. We are all ready to defend our homeland. I left the winery without any idea of what to do next or where to work.
It was purely by chance that an acquaintance of mine, also a young winemaker, sent me a link to The Artémis Domaines Golden Vines Victims of Conflict Scholarships. Without any expectations at all, I submitted my application, and later I was invited for an interview. I am convinced that I was not the only person who received this scholarship and shed tears upon reading the letter from the Gérard Basset Foundation.
At that point, the war had been raging for about six months, and I was worried about having to leave my family. Although the war has now become part of our everyday reality, and the events no longer provoke the same fear and despair as before. Each time I return from home to France, I worry that the next time I come back, all my relatives, friends, and the men and boys who I know that are defending our country remain alive and unharmed.
All my loved ones remain in Ukraine. My mother and sister live in Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea that Russia bombs on a regular basis. My older sister stayed behind to look after our parents, while I, by working in France, was able to provide them with financial support.
I am originally from the Zhytomyr region, where my closest family members and childhood friends live. At the start of the full-scale invasion, russian troops nearly reached Zhytomyr, and I thank every deity that our soldiers managed to hold out, achieve victory in those battles, and drive the enemy out of the northern regions and the capital.
Two of my uncles joined the Territorial Defence forces from the very first days of the war and were later called into full military service. The moments when I managed to speak with them or see them on a video call were both invaluable and nerve-racking. I would drop everything at work, whether I was dealing with wine or on the vineyards and I am grateful to my colleagues for understanding how important that was to me. Each of those conversations can quite literally be the last. That is our reality.
By raffling off bottles of French wine I had (including a bottle from Domaine d’Eugénie and one from Clos de Tart) I managed to collect a third of the cost of a drone. My uncle’s brigade needed a drone, which I hope served them well.
Overall, I feel cut off from the events in my country. I feel guilty for not being with my family during this difficult time. Yet I recognise that, by being here, growing as a professional, and having the chance to support them financially and donate to our army, I am more useful.
Nevertheless, I am extremely grateful that thanks to the Gérard Basset Foundation and Artémis Domaines, I have been given this opportunity of a lifetime. I am also incredibly pleased that I ended up at Domaine d’Eugénie, because working alongside such a small, youthful team of highly motivated, intelligent, and conscientious individuals is truly invaluable. I’m glad we have developed good relationships, and that the winery offered me a permanent contract. For a long time, I was unsure whether to accept it, because I had always wanted and still want return home. But here in France, I have far greater prospects.
One day I will be able to go back, and perhaps I will have the chance to use the skills I have gained here in France to bring new projects to life in Ukraine!
Maryna Revkova
2022 Artémis Domaines Scholar, Ukrainian sommelier and now winemaker. Winner of the 2020 Best Sommelier of Ukraine title.
The war caught me in Kyiv as chief sommelier of a wonderful new project, which could never be carried out again because of the war. The missile fell near my house on 18 March 2022 at night and the windows, doors and flat were blown open by the shockwave. After that I went to Portugal to work for Symington as a sommelier for a new restaurant in the Douro Valley with Chef Pedro Lemos. My mum was staying in the occupied territory in Zaporizhzhya region at the time and I looked for ways to get her out of there, and soon she managed to get to safe Ukrainian-controlled territory.
It was easy for me to find a job abroad, as at that time I had won the contest of the best sommelier of Ukraine, had ASI diploma, WSET 3 and represented Ukraine at the contest 'the best sommelier of Europe and Africa'.
I really love my job and love learning, but at that moment it was hard to realise the dissonance between the calm, measured, restaurant European life and the constant news updates and worrying about my loved ones during the constant shelling. After a while, I won a scholarship from Gérard Basset Foundation and an internship at Ch Latour. This gave a tremendous kick to continue my studies at all costs, as I never believed in myself and didn't think I would be given such a chance.
Such chances are rare and I realised that I had no right to sit and suffer from psychological distress while some of my fellow sommeliers have swapped their corkscrews for guns and are fighting for our independence.
At Latour I felt confidence, stability, a renewed thirst for knowledge and a desire to prove that Ukrainians are self-sufficient, intelligent, independent people.
With my first bourse I bought a small generator and a battery for my relatives in Kyiv, because due to constant power cuts they had no communication, heat and internet. At that moment I was happy that I just had the opportunity to talk to my family on the phone. The scariest and most disturbing time was when rockets were fired at Kyiv and there was no communication.
At the same time, a restaurant in Portugal and Château Latour in France were the best work experiences in my life.
Château Latour made me fall in love with winemaking, and it turned out to be much more interesting than just selling wine. From the French, I learnt to manage time and to love life and its quality. And fluent French language, of course, are there any chances with English in France? Probably those six months of internship were the most important in my life, useful and brought a lot of lessons.
I wanted to go further and in 2024 entered to the Weinakademie Österreich for my DipWSET. Now I have passed D1 and D2, writing a research assignment on Virginia and going to enter the Institute of Masters of Wine as soon as possible after Diploma.
I came back to Ukraine because my family, my future husband and my favourite job are here. I work as a director of a new Ukrainian winery in the Odesa region and make wine there. Is it dangerous here? Of course, yes, but we get used to everything. I love my country very much and I believe that the war will end as soon as possible. Human life is the greatest value and no one has the right to take it from others.
I also plan to get away to New Zealand for the harvests to stay busy, not to waste time and gain precious winemaking experience.
Anna Yanchenko
2023 Artémis Domaines Scholar, Ukrainian winemaker, wine buyer and author of 29 Centuries: Rediscovered history of wine in Ukraine, which won the OIV’s highest recognition last year.
I cannot complain about my life now, though I am still living in Poland and traveling home once a month. Many others have experienced far greater hardships. The reason I remain in Poland is not my destroyed home in the suburbs of Kharkiv – even though, sadly, it is beyond rebuilding. Frankly, no one even considers it, knowing that during the occupation, Russian soldiers placed a large machine for launching short-range missiles in the garden of our house and used it to target my city, Kharkiv. The area remains mined also.
As a result, I spend half the month in Warsaw and the other half in Kyiv or Kharkiv because my life is still there. The main reason I am still here in Poland is my husband. He is from Belarus, and since February 2022, he has lost his right to be in Ukraine. Funny that he also can't return home – he will be prisoned for political reasons once he crosses the border with Belarus (protests of 2020). Our marriage assembled Royal Flush from the old-fashioned dictators. So we wait for the Victory to return home to Ukraine.
Since my brother joined the Ukrainian army, waiting for any news from him has been incredibly difficult – he is often out of reach. I’ve even found myself praying, despite being an atheist. Also, I am trying to help somehow. While working at Château Latour, I brought home some bottles of ‘working wine’ – the so-called ‘VCC’ bottles that each worker receives monthly. Although that wine is outstanding, I decided not to drink it. Instead, I use those bottles as prizes in endless fundraising efforts for vehicles, medical equipment, and gear for our defenders. I can honestly say that good wine helps good people survive. These bottles have already helped many.
As you might know, while working at Château Latour, I finished my book about the true history of wine in Ukraine: 29 Centuries: Rediscovered history of wine in Ukraine. With the help of my subscribers, it was translated into English, and with the help of Vinos de la Luz, the book was published. I was fortunate enough to receive the OIV Award 2024 for it. Unfortunately, the book is still unavailable in the Ukrainian language. The printing facility of the publishing house Vivat, which was set to release the book, was bombed in May 2024. It was a devastating situation, but the publishing house is resilient, and we are now expecting the book to be released this March.
I often think about how I can help sustain the wine culture in Ukraine despite the circumstances. That’s why I have started creating online courses about the history of wine in Ukraine, live streams about Ukrainian wines, and sessions on the main principles of winemaking. I fear that Ukraine could lose the progress in wine culture it has achieved over the last decades.
This summer, I was invited to give a lecture about the connections between the wine world and our famous literary figures at KharkivMusicFest – in a bomb shelter. At first, I was astonished – a classical piano concert in a bomb shelter? In Kharkiv, a city where bombs fall regularly, sometimes daily or even hourly? What? I was overwhelmed but accepted the challenge. After giving that lecture, I realized that nobody seemed to care anymore about the air-raid alarms; they had become a part of life. I love history; that’s why I’ve read about this phenomenon early, in accounts of London during WWII, where people grew accustomed to danger. Every time I return to Kharkiv, I think of London. People live their lives and refuse to leave their city because it is their city.
That is why I am now working on organizing The First All-Ukrainian Championship of Wine Connoisseurs 2025 (Online). The grand prize – a case of VCC wine from Château Latour – is intended to inspire sommeliers, cavistes and wine enthusiasts to continue learning, even if they lack access to traditional courses. This initiative was inspired by moments like one with my colleague, Ivan, who apologized for taking so long to review a chapter of my book – because he was reading it from the trenches. Until that moment, I hadn’t known he had become a soldier. His story motivates me to ensure that those unable to attend in-person competitions still have opportunities to grow and excel. Through this Championship, I aim to support wine professionals in maintaining their expertise and encourage enthusiasts to deepen their knowledge. While I already have a remarkable prize for the best connoisseur, I am now seeking partners and sponsors to help secure equally impressive rewards for the top ten winners.
My greatest dream is Victory. The next one is to keep the wine culture. So while I can’t reduce the number of air-raid alarms in Ukraine, I can do my part to bring maximum attention to Ukraine’s wine culture.
Valeria Tenison
Russian MW student in St-Émilion.
I have not been happy with Russian politics since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. Also the ambience inside the country became very toxic, so I started to think about how to immigrate. My husband is from Moldova and, though he speaks perfect Russian and looks completely local, it was also difficult for him to live in Russia because of many bureaucratic restraints. In 2015, we went for a 1-year work contract in Maldives, then we came back. Luckily, my husband has some Romanian ancestry, and he applied for a Romanian passport, which he obtained in a few years, so it was easier for us to move to the EU. I finally found a study programme and received an Erasmus Plus scholarship for a master's degree in Wine Tourism and Innovation, which I pursued in Spain (Tarragona), France (Bordeaux) and Porto (Portugal). We loved Bordeaux a lot and settled here.
My family (mother, father, grandfather and sister) is still in Russia. Of course, the war influences all of them, but so far more in an economic way with huge inflation rates and overall instability. Luckily, none of my closest relatives was recruited into the army. I have a lot of Ukrainian friends, and they know my position about the war, so there are no tensions between us. I can't say that I faced any kind of discrimination personally during these almost three years of war, but, of course, the sanctions made my life more difficult as many French banks refused to work with Russian citizens at all, so when we were buying a house in St-Emilion, we received a lot of negative responses in the beginning, which was discouraging. But finally, we made it!
My small company, A la volée, is an agent that connects producers and importers. I mostly work with small growers in Champagne like Pierric Brochet and Jérôme Lefèvre but developing other regions (Burgundy) and countries as well, particularly Italy, Spain and Germany. My MW connections help a lot to develop the network, which is essential in this kind of job. I also contribute to Jane Anson's Inside Bordeaux website and the French wine magazine VertdeVin. My objective is to establish myself as an independent consultant, writer and educator in the near future. I target Eastern European and Central Asian markets as the knowledge of Russian is still very valuable there, and the wine culture needs to be developed. I made a trip to Kazakhstan this summer and was warmly welcomed by one of Almaty's leading wine schools, iWine. I also hope, of course, that Russia will change its political system one day, and I will be able to work with Russian producers. I am thinking about writing an MW thesis about Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign that drastically affected wine production in the Soviet Union.
Abdullah Richi
Former barber and stonemason who fled the Syrian civil war to make wine in Lebanon and now owns the Dar Richi label.
I left Syria in 2000 and started working as a barber , then moved to Beirut to work in the construction and stone industry for five years. After that, I went to North Lebanon to start working in a winery for three years and returned to Syria to start my own project, but the war started. Unfortunately, I could not stay with my family. I left my wife and daughters and left for Lebanon to meet Eddie Chami by chance. This meeting was a radical change in my life. Eddie started learning winemaking and teaching me everything about wine and grapes. I started making my first wine, which was called Hanan, which is my wife's name. A red wine made from Cabernet, Malbec and Sangiovese. After that, I made Chardonnay (orange wine) and named it Dream because my dream was to return to Syria and make wine there.
Walid Habchi
Making wines in the northern Bekaa under the label Couvent Rouge. The winery was founded in 2010 and, part of a larger co-operative, was a simple, long-term plan to replace cannabis with vines and for the time being, they grow side by side.
The tranquility that once encapsulated the picturesque landscapes of Lebanon was shattered by the recent outbreak of war, leaving an indelible mark on every facet of life, including the operations of Couvent Rouge Winery. Prior to this conflict, our winery was already grappling with the financial strains imposed by the economic crisis that began in 2019. However, the escalation of war has profoundly affected our daily work, challenging our resilience and adaptability.
One of the most immediate consequences of the war was the dramatic decline in sales within our local market. With 70 percent of our revenue reliant on local sales, the impact was severe; we experienced a staggering 60 percent decrease in sales during the conflict. This downturn forced us to re-evaluate our financial strategies and scale back our expansion plans. Our primary focus became ensuring the stability of our workforce and maintaining payment schedules for our employees. We made it a priority to pay salaries on time, recognizing that our team’s livelihood was paramount during this uncertain period.
The second priority was paying the grapes due to the farmers who lost all others sources of income during war and they were dependent on us for money.
Furthermore, the war presented significant logistical challenges. Situated in the Baalbek area, we relied heavily on the highway connecting Baalbek to Zahle for the export of our wines and the import of essential raw materials. Unfortunately, international shipping companies ceased operations along this route, either avoiding our area or taking alternate paths altogether. This created a significant bottleneck in our supply chain. Despite the difficulties, we were compelled to find innovative solutions to source urgent raw materials necessary for maintaining our daily operations, demonstrating our team's creativity and problem-solving skills in a time of crisis.
Harvesting grapes also became a daunting task. We witnessed a loss of approximately 70 percent of our workers, many of whom were Syrian laborers who fled Baalbek for safer regions or returned to Syria. With a limited workforce, our grape-picking efforts were delayed, forcing us to pay double for the remaining workers. The challenges we faced during this period underscored the importance of community and collaboration; we persevered through these difficult tasks with the help of our dedicated remaining team members
On our daily routines in the winery we were very afraid a missile would hit us by mistake because the hostilities were very close to us kilometres away and we were always on move.
On a personal level, the war exposed me to a new layer of fear and uncertainty. Living in Zahle and commuting daily to Deir el Ahmar near Baalbek, I encountered perilous situations on my route. Each day brought the alarming sight of devastation and destruction, a stark reminder of the tumultuous times we were enduring. The dangers I faced during these journeys were among the most challenging experiences of my life, adding emotional strain to my responsibilities.
In conclusion, while the cessation of hostilities is a welcome relief, the repercussions of the recent war continue to resonate at Couvent Rouge Winery. We remain devoted to overcoming these challenges and supporting our local community, which has been a source of strength throughout these turbulent times. Moving forward, we hope for safety and stability, nurturing a spirit of resilience that allows us to thrive and continue contributing to our beloved local economy. Together, we will heal and rebuild, ensuring that the legacy of Couvent Rouge endures amid adversity.