The paper proposes an economic analysis of the french "rural renaissance". In a first time, residential and occupational mobility and commuting systems are examined within a microeconomic framework. Agriculture is being cut back while rural industry remains stable. Demand for residential, recreational and environmental rural goods is growing. The analysis is conduced by developing the comparative advantage concept (local resources, transport costs, spatialized production and consumption functions). Then a keynesian mechanism of employment inducement within market areas is called upon to explain the distribution of activities. These changes suggest new structures for local labour market areas that are spatially and hierarchically polarised.
