Oh btw the male artist in the second couple (Anthony) had moved to Paris because he had more opportunities than his partner (Sandy) who was struggling in Lergnes, mostly thanks to the field’s homophilia and to the contacts he had made in Paris. He was living with a US artist by the time the article was published. I think he’s a total jerk but anyway, the two couples on which the author had focused had tried to establish a local artistic NPO/gallery in which they’d invite other artists and show the wives’ own artworks; in the Sandy/Anthony couple the husband was the one contacting other artists because he had, case in point, a better social network "thanks" to the field’s homophilia, but in both cases the NPO had closed due to a lack of public funding (which is a general trend, the author says, in French middle-sized declining towns), which had led to (a) Alice and Sébastien buying the windmill, thanks to Sébastien’s own economic capital and him being a decent, loving, committed husband, and (b) Sandy and Anthony breaking up.