“We had an apartment at the very end, on the fourth floor, points out Danielle Duprat, 74. With my husband, we bought in the 1990s and nobody said then that there was a risk of erosion, there is nothing in the deeds that we signed. »
She and many other former residents and inhabitants of Soulac came to witness with emotion the first demolition operations of the Le Signal building, built in 1967 200 meters from the sea and which is now less than 20 meters from the waves. It will take about three weeks to bring down the concrete frame of the residence, which was the subject of an asbestos removal operation in 2019.
Christophe Béchu, Minister for the Ecological Transition had made the trip to Gironde for this first digger: “We are putting an end to a wart and a long fight, but then we have to look at how, everywhere else, the reality of global warming and its acceleration also lead us to take decisions to anticipate other cases of this type. The Signal is really the foil example, to be absolutely avoided.
A strong acceleration during the storms of 2010 and 2014
“When we were in his apartment, we felt like we were in a boat, we could see the lighthouse, it was masterful! “recalls Marie, 77, who came to support her sister Danielle, for whom it is a difficult time. Settled in Bordeaux, Danielle and her husband regularly came to their apartment in Signal and when they retired, they spent six to seven months there. “For some, this was to be their main residence after retirement,” says the septuagenarian.
She remembers that the waves began to get closer and closer since 2005. “Before, it was about three meters a year and a little more during storms,” she says. The retreats of the coastline are undergoing major accelerations with the storm Xynthia in 2010 and the storms of winter 2014 which will lead to the evacuation of the occupants of the residence. “I consulted the departmental archives and in the 1930s, villas built further from the sea than the Signal had been destroyed on the seafront but we built in front”, points out Danielle Duprat, her throat knotted.
“Less than 20 meters from the shore, there was a risk of collapse and our consulting firm told us that we should not keep it busy, recalls Xavier Pintat, the mayor (LR) of Soulac-sur-Mer . If we had defended too frontally (the Signal), we would have taken the risk of having a big erosion north of the groyne which could have cut the central beach in two. »
“From Dream to Nightmare”
Forced to evacuate, the co-owners of the residence are offered in 2014, compensation of 20,000 euros per dwelling by the State, which they consider of course very insufficient. The problem is that the Barnier fund, which allows compensation for victims of natural disasters, does not take into account the dune risk. This legal vacuum leads the co-owners to lead a real obstacle course before the courts.
Finally, in December 2018, an amendment to the 2019 budget released an envelope of seven million euros which compensated owners up to 70% of the value of their property. “129,000 euros for more than 70 m2 with a sea view, if someone finds me another one, without my feet in the water, I’ll take it,” Danielle Duprat quips. I’m sick of the way we were treated. It was a dream that turned into a nightmare. If already several years have passed, the resentment of this co-owner who felt abandoned by the public authorities seems intact.
“I have the feeling that we are ending a painful chapter, first for the co-owners because there is moral damage but also for the city, tries Xavier Pintat. We were tired of being the symbol of marine erosion when right next to the Signal you have one of the most beautiful beaches on the Atlantic coast, thanks to the management of the coastline that we did. »
When the Signal has been nibbled and put on the ground, it will take a fortnight to evacuate the rubble which will be used to reconstruct the access passes to the small port of the estuary. It will be necessary to wait until after the summer, the time that the dune stabilizes, before planting suitable vegetation there. The municipality has planned to offer two belvederes in place of the residence which occupied the television news. One to discover the fauna and flora of the dune environment and the other facing the sea to admire the Cordouan lighthouse and, finally, without obstacles, its beautiful beach.